mtim 



■;.m* •«•■«•■ 



1UI5LE TRUTHS, 



SHAKSPEARIAN PARALLELS. 



J. B. SELKIRK. 



1/ 



If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater." 

i John- v. 9. 

All human understandings are nourished by the one Divine Word." 

A Fragment of Heraclitus. 



Cfjtrtr Coition. 

WITH ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES AND AN INDEX. 



LONDON : 
HOLDER AND STOUGHTON. 

27, PATERNOSTER ROW. 




^d HJUoimU 






- 



15756 




Watson and Hazell, Printers, London and Aylesbury. 



INTRODUCTION. 



" In His hand are both we and our words." 

Wisdom vii. 17. 

ONE of the most interesting characteristics of the 
standard literature of our country is the sterling 
biblical morality it reflects. This is not only ob- 
servable in those works which form so important 
and fundamental a part of British Classics, the 
writings of our standard divines — where, indeed, 
such a specialty migh-t""nsrtnrally be expected,— 
but it is also a prominent feature irixthe writings of 
our greatest philosophers and poets/ In the works 
of Bacon and Milton hV is especially noticeable. 
Throughout the entire works of the great " father 
of experimental philosophy " this peculiarity is 
sufficiently apparent ; but in his essays, — the 
especial favourites of the author — which he so 
carefully revised and re-wrote in the ripeness of 
his age and experience, and which therefore may 
be considered the very cream and essence of 
his wonderful genius, this characteristic element 



IV 



Introduction. 



obtains a prominence that cannot fail to have 
struck his most cursory reader. Out of these 
fifty-eight short essays, I have found, in twenty- 
four of them that treat more exclusively of 
moral subjects, more than seventy allusions to 
Scripture, — so natural was it — to borrow a figure 
of his own — for his great mind "to turn upon the 
poles of truth," and to revert to its great fountain- 
head, in support and confirmation of his own pro- 
found conclusions. 

An analogous moral tone, is so abundantly ap- 
parent in the works of Milton, that it is unnecessaiy 
to particularize it ; and although the nature of the 
controversies that vexed his times, and in which he 
took so prominent a part, would have been more 
than sufficient to have given his prose writings this 
particular colour and bent, yet in his poems, " the 
immortal part of him," a similar spirit pervades 
every page. To such heights of moral grandeur, 
indeed, does it lead him, in some of those sublimer 
passages of his, that one feels as he reads that they 
have been written in the conscious over-shadowing 
of that same Spirit from under whose cloud-veiled 
majesty on the mount issued the eternal politics 
of heaven. 

In an almost equal degree downwards toward 
our minor writers will this feature be found to exist, 
and there is scarcely an abiding name in literature 



Introduction. v 

in which it is not a notable characteristic. This 
unconscious coincidence between the morality of 
the greatest minds and that of revelation suggests 
a field of inquiry, tempting indeed to enter, but 
of too extended a character to be treated, as the 
fertility of the subject would require, within the 
narrow limits of a preface. That such a coinci- 
dence, however, is not altogether the mere result 
of- educational prejudice, as some no doubt will be 
ready to assume, is quite evident from the fact of 
its having been sometimes conspicuous in the 
works of men singularly heedless of Scripture 
morality, and even of men the general tone of 
whose works has been notoriously out of keeping 
and opposed to it ; and further, by the fact that it 
also holds good in many cases between the morality 
of the New Testament and the minds of men who 
wrote before the Christian era. The Christianity 
of Platonism affords an interesting evidence of this. 
The coincidence, I imagine, is no mere outward 
accident of education, but a God-implanted prin- 
ciple, radical and innate, the very natural homage 
of the greatest spirits to the Father of all spirits, 
the irresistible gravitation of all moral genius to its 
common centre. 

But by far the most prominent example of this 
deference and homage paid to revealed truth will 
be found in the works of Shakspeare. As he excels 



vi Introduction. 

in nearly all other points, so also is he greatest in 
this. So perfectly impregnated with the leaven of 
the Bible are his works, that we can scarcely open 
them as if by accident without encountering one 
or other of its great truths which his genius has 
assimilated and reproduced in words that seem to 
renew its authority, and strengthen its claims upon 
men's attention. 

The character and extent of Shakspeare's educa- 
tion is a subject which has been discussed already 
ad nauseam — one of those unfortunate points of 
which so little is known, that every one thinks 
himself entitled to have his say in it. But if in- 
ternal evidence from his works has any place in the 
argument at all, the most extreme disputants on 
either side the question will readily concede that 
one of the principal influences that- moulded and 
guided his intellect — that one of his great teachers, 
indeed, was the Bible. It is not only apparent in 
the tone of his morality, but in the manner of it 
also. Both the spirit and the letter bear witness. 
It has left its impression, not only on his mind, 
but on his idiom, on the exquisite simplicity of his 
diction, and on the intense homeliness with which 
he brings his truths to bear on men's " business 
and bosoms," while his innumerable allusions, direct 
and indirect, to Scripture history, persons, places, 
events, doctrines, parables, precepts, and even 



Introduction. vii 

phrases, discover a familiarity with the Bible that 
proves it must have been eminently the book after 
his own heart. And there can be little doubt but 
that he could have endorsed the confession of one 
of the greatest of modern writers, who, with con- 
siderable justice, has been called the Shakspeare of 
Germany. " It is a belief in the Bible," says 
Goethe, " which has served me as the guide of my 
literary life. I have found it a capital safely in- 
vested, and richly productive of interest." The 
Reformation tinged the entire literature of the 
Elizabethan era with the same spirit. It was the 
distinguishing feature of the time, and naturally 
enough culminated in the greatest genius of the 
time. The awakening spirit of religious freedom, 
that early in the century had received such an 
impetus from the fire then kindled in Germany 
and that had been so mightily aided by the art of 
printing, then established in the country for about 
half a century, had now fairly taken root in the 
English character. Men's minds were on the rack 
of curiosity, eager to anticipate the result that so 
many open Bibles would surely bring about, and, 
so to speak, were waiting upon the men who could 
popularly incorporate the glorious element in their 
literature. Modern civilization can scarcely be too 
grateful for the providential fact of Shakspeare's 
coming into the world when he did. The time 



viii . Introduction. 

demanded him, and he came like a star to its ap- 
pointed orbit, so wonderful did his genius fit the 
spiritual necessities of the age. 

It would be an interesting question to answer, 
How much of Shakspeare's generally admitted 
superiority may be fairly attributed to this uni- 
versal habit of his, of adopting and identifying 
himself in his works with the morality of Scrip- 
ture ? I suspect it is one of the principal secrets 
of his wide-spread and wide-spreading fame. A 
great deal more of the purely moral element goes 
to the build of what we call genius, than the great 
majority of people are prepared to admit. The 
materialism that in its pseudo-scientific mask has 
such an all-deceiving fascination for the present 
age, has done its best to disguise the fact, and 
would like nothing so well as to be able to prove 
that all mental and spiritual superiority in a man 
is to be accounted for on certain fixed bases of 
physiological structure and development. With- 
out detracting from such an argument one syllable 
of the truth it manifestly contains, it should by no 
means be held to settle the whole question. The 
almost blasphemous self-sufficiency with which 
such arguments are nowadays advanced, as ex- 
plaining the whole mystery, does not meet with 
the opposition it deserves, tending, as it certainly 
has already done, to a mischievous extent, popu- 



Introduction. ix 

larly to blunt all faith, if not indeed to bring 
about an utter scepticism in the only true source 
of power in a man, and the only channel through 
which the highest influences can reach him — 
namely, that mysterious point of contact between 
him and his Creator which no science can ever hope 
to explain. This fatal teaching is fast framing 
a religion that almost forgets the only object of 
worship, in a morbid hurry and insatiable desire 
to explain moral phenomena that lie far out of 
human reach, and has laid the foundation of a 
philosophy which encourages in its disciples such 
an inordinate love of those secondary laws that 
regulate the mere details of the mental machine, 
that it leaves out of count altogether the Prime 
Mover. It is all the more to be deplored that such 
a tendency should be commonly alluded to by 
many as a feature upon which the age should be 
congratulated, instead of being crushed as exhibit- 
ing the first symptoms, in the man or in the nation, 
of ultimate imbecility. No mere preponderance 
of intellectual power alone can sufficiently account 
for the workings of that faculty so " fearfully and 
wonderfully made," which constitutes the highest 
forms of genius. It is all the more inscrutable 
that its source is not so much intellectual as spi- 
ritual. We call it inspiration. Does not the very 
word breathe a rebuke to the materialism that, 



x Introduction. 

ignoring its direct indebtedness to God, would pro- 
ceed to explain it as only a more elaborate piece 
of mental mechanism ? Does not the very word 
confess it to be a breath of that .more mysterious 
Spirit that " bloweth where it listeth ;. thou hearest 
the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it 
cometh or whither it- goeth" ? The most perfect 
human organization must wait upon the moving 
of a higher spirit than its own ; and its moral 
endowment, before it has any right to be called 
genius, must be commensurate with its intellectual 
gift. We require to- take but a very cursory view 
of the works of our greatest authors, to enable us 
to conclude that it is not the power and beauty 
alone of genius that gives that perennial freshness 
to all that is imperishable in literature, but that its 
morality is its greatest preservative. In addition 
to all other claims on our admiration, it must also 
possess "some soul of goodness" to enable it to 
outlive the storms of time. There is also a strong 
negative presumption in favour of this view in the 
fact that there is nothing so shortlived and suicidal 
in literature as impurity. The age of which we 
have been speaking affords us a striking example 
of it. Never was there such a moral declension, 
and with it an intellectual atrophy, as exhibited 
between the. drama of Elizabeth and the drama of 
the Restoration. In the time of Elizabeth and 



Introduction. xi 

James, dramatic literature was the vehicle of as 
great thoughts as ever were uttered, or perhaps 
ever will be uttered, in the whole history of our 
language ; but by the dry-rot of impurity that 
began to eat into it in the subsequent reigns of the 
two Charleses, it fell so low that even the genius 
of Dryden will never be able to lift it out of the 
moral puddle he helped to sink it in. All that was 
great in nature forsook it, and what was only 
paltry in art remained, till, dragging on through 
the mire in the hands of Wycherly, Congreve, 
Vanburgh, and Farquhar, it gradually weakened 
down into the most rubbishy small-talk that ever 
disgraced a nation's literature. 

So quickly does this moral gangrene bring about 
its own dissolution. It not only neutralizes the 
effect by impairing the beauty of the thing written, 
but by that dreadful law of retribution by which 
evil thought and evil done are made to gravitate 
towards each other, like monsters that hug each 
other to death, the writer, too, is dragged down, it 
may be to him by imperceptible degrees, but not 
the less surely down, to the level of the thing he 
writes. It does not only clog the action, but it 
breaks the very springs of genius, and men of 
otherwise great powers and parts are dwarfed by 
its narrowing tendency into mere sayers of smart 
things, mere coiners of literary conceits, until they 



xii Introduction. 

get so entangled and limed, so to speak, in their own 
impurity, that they cannot be great if they would. 

"In such cases 
Men's natures wrangle with inferior things, 
Though great ones are their object." 

Even in our greatest authors, who have mixed 
with the pure fire of their genius more than enough 
of the grosser elements of earth, it will be found 
that their true fame rests altogether on the pure 
metal, and never, as some would almost hint, upon 
the earthly ore with which it is alloyed, however 
enhanced such impurity may be by the brilliancy 
of the talent which accompanies it. Where in such 
a case there exists real worth in a man's writings, 
time seems to serve them in the capacity of a vessel 
wherein the whole is held in solution, until all that 
is impure falls to the bottom like a useless pre- 
cipitate, and the real nectar only is left. I know 
no better illustration of this than in the case of 
Burns. It is not now the outward dash of his 
boisterous license that we revere in him, with 
whatever genius he wield his weapon, but the 
abiding grandeur of his name ; and what we really 
love above all to remember in him, is the central 
fire of the man, that in spite of himself continually 
flashes out behind the blackest cloud of his earthi- 
ness, revealing a character whose deep foundations 
are built upon a rock of the rarest humanity and 



Introduction. xiii 

the stanchest truth, and on a morality, indeed, 
whose basis is rigidly and essentially biblical. 

Amongst the many good things that fell from 
the pen and lips of the late Professor George 
Wilson, of Edinburgh, it used to be a common 
regret of his that the readers of the present age 
did not sufficiently peruse " their Bibles and their 
Shakspeares." And if the character of the general 
literary taste of the day may be determined in any 
measure by the quality of a great part of the sup- 
ply, we must admit that the age yields abundant 
proof that the censure is only too well deserved. 
The literature of the day — more particularly in its 
periodical forms, which have so amazingly increased 
upon us of late — has in many cases almost sup- 
planted the literature of the ages. But of course a 
great deal of this evil is inevitable, as it is im- 
possible to increase the facilities of obtaining and 
cultivating a luxury such as reading — or, indeed, 
any other luxury — without also increasing the 
facility and probability of its abuse. It is to be 
deplored, however, that the reverence for our best 
books seems to have decayed in almost the same 
ratio as their cheapness and plentifulness has in- 
creased. Like all our other best blessings, their very 
commonness blinds us to their true value, so that 
they do not carry that weight and authority with 
them they deserve; and even in the case of tie Book 



xiv Introduction. 

of books, I make bold to say that the literature of 
the sixty or seventy years that embraced the names 
of Shakspeare, Bacon, Hooker, Taylor, Milton, and 
a few others, carries upon it deeper and more abiding 
marks of biblical influence and spirit than the lite- 
rature of any subsequent era, our own remarkable 
times of steam-presses and fourpence-halfpenny 
Testaments included. With the great majority, 
the duty of reading has gradually degenerated into 
the pleasure of it. We seldom sit down to a book 
as our forefathers used to do, when books cost a 
deal of money, with the deliberate view of getting 
profit and instruction out of it ; we seldom read 
with a definite object, but for the most part merely 
to stop up with pleasure to ourselves the gaps that 
occur in the intervals of business. With a large 
class the case is even worse — a class of readers ill 
to define — who live as if all their lives they were 
waiting for a train, and who take up a book, as they 
take up anything else, merely pour passer le temps. 

Both the text and the parallel notes of the 
last edition have been considerably added to in 
the present one* These parallel notes have been 
chiefly selected from our standard divines, poets, 

* To any one desirous of studying the parallelism between Scrip- 
ture and many of the heathen writers, I would recommend the 
perusal of a valuable work lately published by Seely, Jackson, and 
Halliday, 54, Fleet Street, " The Testimony of the Heathen to the 
Truths of Holy Writ," by the Rev. Thomas S. Millington, and 



Introduction. xv 

essayists, and, in short, from the works of those 

writers of generally acknowledged merit 

" Who speak the tongue 
Which Shakspeare spake." 

For the sake of variety, I have also chosen a few 
parallels from living authors, and have endeavoured 
throughout to select from as varied and widely 
different sources as possible, believing that the tes- 
timony the}' contribute to the several truths they 
are intended to corroborate will be all the more 
valuable on that account ; although, from the tone 
of some of the notices of the first edition, and more 
particularly as I have been asked to withdraw even 
the quotations from the Apochrypha, I am aware 
that objections may be made to what some may 
consider the indiscriminate comparison of sacred 
with profane truth. Did I think that such an 
objection required to be seriously refuted, I might 
at once quote the -example of the inspired writers 
themselves, as making in several instances direct 
allusion to the works of heathen authors. But 
rather than entertain such an objection, I would go 
further, and maintain that the testimony even of 
avowed enemies in such a case carries with it a 
special and significant value. When the evidence 
of friends on the one side is riveted by the con- 

from which, by permission, I have added some very striking parallels 
from the Greek and Latin classics, to those I had already gathered. 



xvi Introduction. 

fession of enemies on the other, there is only one 
possible road to a verdict. When to the unflinching 
attachment of St. John, as he stood by the cross, is 
added, not only the testimony of the penitent thief 
and the trembling centurion, but the remembrance 
of that yet more awfully significant confession of 
Judas, when, throwing down the thirty pieces of 
silver in the temple, 

" Compell'd 
Even in the teeth and forehead of his fault 
To give in evidence," 

he exclaims in an agony of remorse, " I have be- 
trayed the innocent blood ; " it is then the testi- 
mony becomes more than human, and corrobora- 
tion is complete ; it is then that we feel, in the words 
of Ferdinand, " this is no mortal business." And 
so in the history of all truth it will be found that 
the contributions of its enemies have ever been 
among the most convincing. A whole volume of 
evidences for the truths of Scripture could yet be 
compiled from the testimony, direct and indirect, 
of its own enemies, — a volume that would disclose 
a vein of singular richness, too much overlooked, in 
a mine whose every other source has been wrought 
almost to exhaustion. There is no evidence more 
piquant, or more finally conclusive, than when N a 
witness suborned for the prosecution breaks down, 
through the inherent impotence of falsehood, and 



Introduction. xvii 

a native inability to look the truth in the face, into 
a valuable witness for the defence. A great deal of 
this very significant testimony may be obtained 
from sources usually considered the greatest of all 
enemies to the truth, namely, the false religions 
of the world. I have a collection of parallels to 
Bible truths selected from the Koran, which would 
greatly help to illustrate and confirm this fact, but 
which I have not added to the present notes, as these 
are already too numerous. The remotest suspicion 
of irreverence to sacred truth, however, in making 
such a comparison, to me is simply inconceivable. 
There is surely an infinite satisfaction in the fact 
that the most successful of liars have always found 
it necessary to pay a certain amount of homage to 
the truth, in order at all to obtain a hearing. The 
spirit that inspired the lies of Mahomet, and inspires 
those of to-day, knows well that his victims will not 
rise to the naked hook. He must needs at least bait 
with truth, or, in Shakspearian language, he must 

' ' Win us with honest trifles, to betray us 
In deepest consequence." >» 

Moreover, it is impossible that the truth can ever 
become less the truth by reason of the source from 
which it is drawn. Those who would teach other 
doctrine than, this, do so in direct opposition to the 
spirit of the Gospel. When John brought a com- 
plaint to Christ of one who was casting out devils, 

b 



xviii Introduction. 

but " followed not Avith them," and whom on that 
account he had forbidden, our Lord rebukes him in 
these words, " Forbid him not, for he that is not 
against us is for us."* And in a somewhat similar 
spirit St. Paul writes to the Philippians that " some 
indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife ; one 
of contention, not sincerely, but the other of love," 
and he adds, " What then ? notwithstanding every 
way, whether in pretence or in truth Christ is 
preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will 
rejoice." May we not say the same of all truth ? 
As it does not affect the intrinsic value or the cur- 
rency of the coin itself, whether it be the price of 
honest labour or the gains of a pickpocket, neither 
can it affect the unchangeable value and currency 
of truth, whether the testimony brought it be the 
freewill worship of a saint of God, or whether it be^ 
torn from the unwilling lips of those who believe 
and tremble. All attempts to specialize the sources 
of truth, and Circumscribe its perfect freedom, ever 
have resulted, and ever will result, in bigotry, in- 
tolerance, and schism. There is nothing in the 
Word of God, to justify the attempt to confine it 
even to that, its mightiest source ; and certainly the 
extreme irreverence that characterizes the biblical 
criticism of the present day, is' hardly less de- 



For an 



Old Testament parallel to this see Numb. xi. 27 — 29. 



Introduction. xix 

plorable than the error in the opposite extreme of 
those imprudent sticklers for the Bible, and nothing 
but the Bible, who exhaust their ingenuity to recon- 
cile it to modern science, who quote its authority 
for matters it was never intended to decide, and 
who, before they will admit any proposition what- 
ever, are always ready, with more zeal than dis- 
cretion, and more noise than either, to shake the 
Scriptures in the faces of their friends, and exclaim, 
with the stubborn Jew, " Is it so written in the 
bond ? " 

I have been informed by some kind friends, whom 
I take the present opportunity of sincerely thank- 
ing, that the late Professor Wurm, of Hamburg,- 
when he died, had in course of preparation for the 
press a work which was intended to have shown the 
striking harmony existing between the Bible and 
the greatest minds of all nations and languages. 
From a habit of marking in promiscuous reading all 
such passages as exhibited this parallelism, I have 
long been convinced that there could not be a more 
valuable commentary on the great truths of Scrip- 
ture than such a book would unfold ; and it is to 
be hoped that a work of importance to so large 
a class of readers may yet be completed. The 
amount of labour and research necessary for the 
successful execution of such a work, if undertaken 
in a way the importance of the subject deserves, 



xx Introduction. 

would be stupendous, and I can scarcely conceive 
any single editor equal to such a task. I refer to 
the subject in this place, to express a hope that the 
genius of Shakspeare may be duly represented in 
such a work ; and also because this little volume, al- 
though having reference only to one man's writings 
(if we except the notes), can claim relationship to 
the larger work on the common ground, at least, of 
a unity of motive and design ; satisfied if, in relation 
to such an onerous and important undertaking, it 
should only prove to be " the baby image of the 
giant mass of things to come." 

In conclusion, I have only to add that I trust the 
readers of these parallels may experience some of 
the interest and pleasure the compiler has had in 
feretting them out and arranging them, and that 
the attempt may perhaps induce some others to 
make some further search for additional illustrations 
of the subject, in the glorious mines from which these 
are but broken fragments. The writer can speak 
for the pleasantness of the work, for although 
it has occupied the greater part of the . leisure 
hours of a few years, it has been altogether 
of that nature which only enables him to subscribe 
with greater emphasis his testimony to the truth of 
the Shakspearian proverb that tells us " The labour 
we delight in physics pain." 



BIBLE TRUTHS, 

WITH 

SHAKSPEARIAN PARALLELS. 



I. 

THE COMPENSATIONS OF ADVERSITY. 

THEY that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that 
goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, 
shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing 
his sheaves with him. 1 Ps. cxxvi. 5, 6. 

Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall be 
comforted. Matt. v. 4. 

They shall come with weeping, and with sup- 
plications will I lead them : I will cause them to 
walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, 
wherein they shall not stumble. Jer. xxxi. 9. 

1 Ps. xxx. 5. 



2 Bible Truths, zvith 

And the Lord God will wipe away tears from off 
all faces. 1 Isa. xxv. 8. 

Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the 
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. 

Isa. lxi. 3. 

Ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be 
turned into joy. 2 John xvi. 20. 



The liquid drops of tears, that you have shed, 
Shall come again, transform'd to orient pearl ; 
Advantaging their loan with interest 
Of ten-times-double gain of happiness, (a) 

King Richard III., Act iv., Scene 4. 

Some falls are means the happier to arise* (b) 
Cymbeline, Act iv., Scene 2. 

1 Rev. xxi. 4. 2 Rom. v. 3 ; Ps. xxx. n. 

(a) Ye good distress'd ! 
Ye noble few ! who here unbending stand 
Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up-awhile, 
And what your bounded view, which only saw 
A little part, deem'd evil, is no more ; 

The storms of wintry time will quickly pass, 
And one unbounded spring encircle all. 

Thomson. 

* There are no faces truer than those that are so washed (i.e.. 
with tears). Much Ado about Nothing, Act 1., Seme 1. 

(b) ■ Despair not in the vale of woe, 

Where many joys from sufferings flow. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 3 

How mightily sometimes we make us comforts 
of our losses ! (<-) 

All's Well that Ends Well, Act iv., Scene 3. 



II. 

CHRIST THE REDEEMER. 

But God commendethhis love toward us, in that 
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 1 

Rom. v. 8. 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his 
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 2 

John iii. 16. 



Oft breathes simoon, and close behind 
A breath of God doth softly blow. 

Clouds threaten — but a ray of light, 
And not of lightning, falls below. 

Trench [from the Arabic). 

(e) And yet the compensations of calamity are made apparent to 
the understanding, also, after long intervals of time. A fever, a 
mutilation, a cruel disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss of friends, 
seems, at the moment, unpaid loss, and unpayable. But the sure 
years reveal the deep remedial force that underlies all facts. 

Emerson. 

1 1 Peter iii. 18; I John iii. 16, iv. 9, 10 ; John xv. 13. 

2 Eph. ii. 4—7; Titus iii. 4—7; 2 Cor. v. 19; Luke xix. ic ; 
2 Peter iii. 9. 



Bible Truths, with 

All the souls, that were, were forfeit once ; 
And He, that might the vantage best have took, 
Found out the remedy* 

Measure for Measure, Act n., Scene 2. 

The world's ransom, blessed Mary's \Son. 

King Richard II., Act iv., Scene 1. 

Now, by the death of Him that died for all ! 

King Henry VI., 2nd Part, Act 1., Scene r. 

That dread King that took our state upon Him, 
To free us from His Father's wrathful curse. 

King Henry VI., ind Part, Act in., Scene 2. 

Those holy fields, 
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet, 
Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed 
For our advantage on the bitter cross. 

■ King Henry IV, 1st Part, Act 1., Scene 1. 



* Shakspeare's faith in this fundamental doctrine is also declared 
in the following extract from his will, preserved in the office of the 
Prerogative Court of Canterbury : _" First, I Comend my Soule into 
the handes of God my Creator, hoping, and assuredlie beleeving, 
through thonelie merites of Jesus Christe my Saviour, to be made 
partaker of lyfe everlastinge, And my bodye to the Earth whereof 
yt ys made." 



Skakspea 1 1'a n Pa) 'a Ik Is. 



III. 

MAX'S LIFE COMPARED TO A PASSING 
CLOUD. 

They shall be as the morning cloud, and as the 
early dew that passeth away. Hos. xiii. 3. 



Ant. Eros, thou yet beholdst me ? 

Eros. Ay, noble lord. 

Ant. Sometimes we see a cloud that's dragonish, 
A vapour sometimes like a bear, or lion, 
A tower'd citadel, a pendent rock, 
A forked mountain, or blue promontory, 
With trees upon't that nod unto the world 
And mock our eyes with air ; thou hast seen these 

signs ; 
They are black Vesper's pageants. 

Eros. Ay, my lord. 

Ant. That which is now a horse, even with a 
thought 
The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct, 
As water is in water. 

Eros. It does, my lord. 

Ant. My good knave Eros, now thy captain is 
Even such a body ; — here I am — Antony — 
Yet cannot hold this visible shape. 

Antony and Cleopatra., Act iv., Scene 12. 



6 Bible Truths, with 

IV. 

THE BLESSED USES OF AFFLICTION. 

Behold, how happy is the man whom God 
correcteth ; therefore despise not thou the chasten- 
ing of the Almighty. 1 Job v. 17. 

As a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy 
God chasteneth thee. 2 Deut. viii. 5. 

Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest,0 Lord, 
and teachest him out of thy law ; that thou mayest 
give him rest from the days of adversity. 3 

Ps. xciv. 12, 13. 

I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. 4 

ISA. xlviii. 10. 

My son, despise not thou the chastening of the 
Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him : for 
whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth 
every son whom he receiveth. Now no chastening 
for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous : 
nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable 



1 Rev. iii. 19. 3 1 Cor. xi. 32 ; Heb. iv. 9. 

2 Prov. iii. 12. 4 Ps. cxviii. iS. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 7 

fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised 
thereby, (a) Heb. xii. 5, 6, 11. 

Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, 
that it may bring forth more fruit. John xv. 2. 

It is good for me that I have been afflicted ; that 
I might learn thy statues. Ps. cxix. 71. 



This sorrow's heavenly, 
It strikes where it doth love, (b) 

Otheli.o, Act v., Scene 2. 



(a) For Thou wert ever with me mercifully rigorous, O Lord, 
who teachest us by sorrow, and who woundest us to heal, and killest 
us lest we die from Thee. St. Augustine. 

These great sorrows are the remedies for the diseases of our 
minds. It is through great suffering that the mystery of Christianity 
is accomplished. Fenelon. 

Afflictions only level the molehills of pride, plough the heart, 
and make it fit for wisdom to sow her seed, and for grace to bring 
forth her increase. Happy is that man, therefore, both in regard 
of heavenly and earthly wisdom, that is thus wounded to be cured, 
thus broken to be made straight, thus made acquainted with his own 
imperfections that he may be perfected. Bacon. 

(?>) God, if we belong to Him, takes us in hand ; and because 
He seeth that we have unbridled stomachs, therefore He sends out- 
ward crosses ; which, while they cause us to mourn, do comfort us, 
being assured testimonies of His love that sends them. 

Bacon. 



Bible Truths, with 

Affliction has a taste as sweef 
As any cordial comfort. 

Winter's Tale, Act v., Scene 3. 

Sweet are the uses of adversity ; 
Which, like a toad, ugly and venomous, 
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head, (c) 

As You Like It, Act 11., Scene 1. 

Whom best I love, I cross ; to make my gift 
The more delay'd, delighted. 

Cymbeline, Act v., Scent 4. 



(c) Thou canst not tell 

How rich a dowry sorrow gives the soul, 
How firm a faith and eagle-sight of God. 

Alford. 

Illness, as far as I can judge in so short a time, has relieved my 
mind of a host of deceptive thoughts and images, and made me 
perceive things in a truer light. Keats. 

Sorrow is knowledge. — Byron. 

Though losses and crosses 

Be lessons right severe, 
There's wit there, ye'll get there, 

Ye'll find nae other where. 

Burns. 

Afflictions are the medicine of the mind ; if they are not tooth- 
some, let it suffice that they are wholesome. It is not required in 
physic that it should please, but heal. 

Bishop Henshaw. 

The good are better made by ill, 
As odours crush'd are sweeter still. 

Rogers. 



Shqkspearian Parallels. 

Bid that welcome 
Which comes to punish us. (d) 

Antony and Cleopatra, Act. iv., Scene 4. 

In the reproof of chance 
Lies the true proof of men. 

Troilus and Cressida, Act 1., Scene 3. 

You were used 
To say, extremity was the trier of spirits. 

Coriolanus, Act iv., Scene 1. 

Why then, you princes, 
Do you, with cheeks abash'd, behold our works ; 



(it) Count each affliction, whether light or grave, 
God's messenger sent down to thee. Do thou 
With courtesy receive him ; rise and bow, 
And, ere His shadow pass thy threshold, crave 
Permission first His heavenly feet to lave : 
Then lay before Him all thou hast. Allow 
Xo cloud of passion to usurp thy brow, 
Or mar thy hospitality ; no wave 
Of mortal tumult to obliterate 
The soul's mai-moreal calmness. Grief should be, 
Like joy, majestic, equable, sedate, 
Confirming, cleansing, raising, making free ; 
Strong to consume small troubles, to commend 
Great thoughts, grave thoughts, thoughts lasting to the end. 
Aubrey de Vere. 

Even among men, the bad by nature is nothing else but bad, the 
good always good ; nor under misfortune does degenerate from his 
nature, but is the same good man. Euripides. 



Reckon any matter of trial to thee among thy private ga 



ins. 
Adams. 



io Bible Truths, with 

And think them shames which are, indeed, nought 

else 
But the protractive trials of great Jove, 
To find persistive constancy in men ? 
The fineness of which metal is not found 
In fortune's love : for then, the bold and coward, 
The wise and fool, the artist and unread, 
The hard and soft, seem all affin'd and kin ; 
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown, 
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan, 
Puffing at all, winnows the light away ; 
And what hath mass and matter, by itself 
Lies, rich in virtue, and unmingled. (e) 

Troilus and Cressida, Act i., Scene %. 



(e) What, many times, I musing ask'd, is man, 
If grief and care 
Keep far from him ? He knows not what he can, 

What cannot bear. 
He, till the fire hath purged him, doth remain 

But merely dross. 
To lack the loving discipline of pain 
Were endless loss. 

Trench. 

The gods in bounty work up thorns about us, 

That give mankind occasion to exert 

Their hidden strength, and throw out into practice 

Virtues that shun the day, and lie conceal'd 

In the smooth seasons and the calms of life. 

Addison. 

We are to think thus of the just man — that if he happen to be in 
poverty or in diseases, or in any other of those seeming .evils, these 
things to him issue in someth ng good, either whilst alive or dead. 

Plato. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 1 1 

V. 

SILENCE SOMETIMES MISTAKEN FOR 

WISDOM. 

Even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted 
wise, and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man 
of understanding. Prov. xvii. 28. 

O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and 
it should be your wisdom. Job xiii. 5. 



There are a sort of men whose visages 
Do cream and mantle like a standing pond ; 
And do a wilful stillness entertain, 
With purpose to be dress'd in an opinion 
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit : 
As who should say, " I am Sir Oracle ! " — 
O my Antonio, I do know of these, 
That therefore only are reputed wise 
Tor saying nothing, (a) ' 

The Merchant ok Venice, Act 1., Scene 1. 



As long as the waters of persecution are upon the earth, so long 
we dwell in the ark ; but where the land is dry, the dove itself will 
be tempted to a wandering course of life, and never to return to the 
house of safety. Jeremy Taylor. 

Blessed be the wind wheresoever it cometh, if it only drive us for 
shelter to the right harbour. St. Francis de Sales. 

[a) The blockhead who is ambitions, and has no talent, finds some- 
times in "the talent of silence " a kind of'succedaneum. 

Carlyle. 



12 Bible Truths, with 

VI. 

THE FALL OF AMBITION. 

The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the 
haughtiness of men shall be made low. 1 

Isa. ii. 17. 

Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty 
spirit before a fall. Prov. xvi. 18. 

The king spake and said, Is not this great 
Babylon, that I have built for the house of the 
kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the 
honour of my majesty ? 2 While the word was in 
the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, 
saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, 
the kingdom is departed from thee : and they shall 
drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with 
the beasts of the field. Dan. iv. 30—32. 



To how many blockheads of my time has a cold and taciturn 
demeanour procured the credit of prudence and capacity ! 

Montaigne. 

When anything is propounded above your capacity, smile at it, 
make two or three faces, and 'tis excellent ; they'll think you've 
travelled. Ben Jonson. 

A man's profundity may keep him from opening on a first inter- 
view, and his caution on a second : but I should suspect Jiis empti- 
ness, if he carried on his reserve to a third. Colton. 
Prov. viii. 13, 6 ; xvi. 17. 2 1 Cor. i. 31 ; Jer. ix. 24. 



Skakspearian Parallels. 13 

A man's pride- shall bring him low. 

Prov. xxix. 23. 

Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased. 

Matt, xxiii. 12. 



Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself, 
And falls on the other side, (a) 

Macbeth, Act 1., Scene 7. 

Fling away ambition ; 
By that sin angels fell : how can man then, 
The image of his Maker, hope to win by it? > 

King Henry VIII., Act in., Scene 2. 

Glory is like a circle in the water, 

Which never ceases to enlarge itself, 

Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought. 

King Henry VI., 1st Part, Act 1., Scene 2. 

This is the state of man : To-day he puts forth 
The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms, 
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him ; 



(a) Who aspires, must down as low 

As high he soar'd, obnoxious, first or last, 
To basest things. MlLTON. 

When you see any one highly elated, glorying in his birth and 
riches, and exalting himself above measure, you may expect to see a 
sudden retribution. The higher he soars, the greater will be his 
fall. Menander. 



14 Bible Truths, with 

The third day comes a frost, a killing frost ; 
And when he thinks/good easy man, full surely, 
His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root, 
And then he falls.* 

King Henry VIII., Act in., Scene 2. 

Ill-weav'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk ! 
When that this body did contain a spirit, 
A kingdom for it was too small a bound ; 
But now, two paces of the vilest_ earth 
Is room enough, (b) 

King Henry IV., 1st Part, Act v., Scene 4. 



VII. 

THE DANGERS OF LUXURY. 

They did eat, and were filled, and became fat, 
and delighted themselves in thy great goodness. 
Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled 
against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs. 

"Neh. ix. 25, 26. 



* The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a 
dream. Hamlet, Act n., Scene 2. 

[b) There is no greater unreasonableness in the world than in the 
designs of ambition. Besides a thousand possibilities of miscarrying, 
it relies upon no greater certainty than our life ; and when we are 
dead, all the world sees who was the fool. 

Jeremy Taylor. 



Skakspearian Parallels. 15 

Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked. 

DEUT. xxxii. 15. 

According to their pasture, so were they filled ; 
they were filled, and their heart was exalted ; there- 
fore have they forgotten me. Hos. xiii. 6. 

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, 
pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness ; 
neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor 
and needy, (a) Eze. xvi. 49. 



Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds. 

King Henry IV., 2nd Pari, Act iv., Scene 4. 

Fat paunches have lean pates ; and dainty bits 
Make rich the ribs, but bank'rout quite the wits. 
Love's Labour Lost, Act 1., Scene 1. 



(<7) O I have ta'en 

Too little care of this ! Take physic, Pomp ; 
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel ; 
That thou mayst shake the superfhix to them, 
And show the heavens more just. 

King Lear, Act 11 1., See* 



1 6 Bible Truths, with 

VIII. 
THE INFLUENCE OF ASSOCIATES. 

He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; 1 
but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. 

Prov. xiii. 20.1 

Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go 
not in the path of evil men. 2 Prov. iv. 14. 

Let thy talk be with the wise, 8 and let just men 
eat and drink with thee, (a) * Ecclus. ix. 15, 16. 

He that toucheth pitch shall be denied there- 
with ; and he that hath fellowship with a proud 
man shall be like unto him. Ecclus. xiii. 1. 



1 1 Kings x. 8. 2 Eph. v. ii; Ps. i. 2. 8 Col. ii. 8. 

[a) He who associates himself for one year with a fallen sinner, 
falls like him ; even by using the same carriage or seat, or by taking 
his food at the same board. Hindu Law. 

Fathers, though otherwise assured of the good disposition of their 
children, forget not to warn them against the company of wicked 
men, knowing that as the converse with the good must exercise and 
improve every virtue, so to associate with the bad must prove no less 
pernicious and baneful. Zenophon. 

Do not the bad work some evil to those that are continually near 
them, but the good some good ? Certainly. Plato. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 1 7 

It is certain that either wise bearing or ignorant 
carriage is caught as men take diseases one of 
another ; therefore let men take heed of their com- 
pany, (b) 

King Henry IV., 2nd Part, Act v., Scene 1. 

Thou art noble ; yet I see 
Thy honourable metal may be wrought 
From that it is disposed ; therefore 'tis meet 
That noble minds keep ever with their likes ; 
For who so firm that cannot be seduced ? 

Julius Cesar, Act 1., Scene 2. 

Keep where there is wit stirring, and leave the 
faction of fools. 

Troilus and Cressida, Act 11., Scene I. 

'Tis seldom, when the bee doth hive her comb 
In the dead carrion. 

King Henry IV., Act iv., Scene 4. 

In companions 
That do converse and waste the time together, 
Whose souls do bear an equal weight of love, 
There must be needs a like proportion 
Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit. 

Merchant of Venice, Act in., Scene 4. 

(b) No company is preferable to bad, because we are more apt to 
catch the vices of others than their virtues, as disease is more con- 
tagious than health. Colton. 

2 



1 8 Bible Truths, with 

Converse with him that is wise, (c) 

King Lear, Act I., Scene 4. 

There is a thing, Harry, which thou hast often 
heard of, and is known to many in our land by. the 
name of pitch ; this pitch, as ancient writers do 
report, doth defile ! so doth the company thou 
keepest. (d) 

King Henry W., % ist Part, Act 11., Scene 4. 

Almost my nature is subdued 
To what it works in, like the dyer's hand. 

Poems. 



IX. 

THE SYMPATHY OF SILENCE. 
So they sat down with him, upon the ground, 



(c) Associate with men of good judgment ; for judgment is found 
in conversation. And we make another man's judgment ours by 
frequenting his company. Fuller. 

He who frequently converses" with others? either in discourse or 
entertainments, or in any familiar way of living, must necessarily 
either become like his companions, or bring them over to his own 
way. Epictetus. 

(d) He who comes from the kitchen smells of its smoke ; he who 
adheres to a sect has something of its cant. Lavater. 

It is impossible to touch a chimney-sweep without being partaker 
of his, soot. Epictetus. 

No man can be provident ol his time who is not prudent in the 
choice of his company. Jeremy Taylor. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 19 

seven days and seven nights, and none spake a 
word unto him : for they saw that his grief was 
very great. Job ii. 13. 

Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel- 
abib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat 
where they sat, and remained there astonished 
among them seven days. Ezek. iii. 15. 

A time to keep silence. Eccles. iii. 7. 



I never yet did hear (a) 
That the bruised heart was pierced through the ear. 
Othello, Act I., Scene 3. 



OVER-CAREFULNESS OF THE BODY 
CENSURED. 

Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall 
we eat ? or, What shall we drink ? or, Wherewithal 
shall we be clothed ? But seek ye first the king- 
dom of God, and his righteousness. 

Matt. vi. 31, 33. 

{a) Only silence suiteth best. 

Words weaker than your grief would make 
Giief more. 'Twere better I should cease. 

Tennyson. 



20 Bible Truths, with \ 

Mortify therefore your members which are upon 
the earth, (a) Col, iii. 5. 



Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth, 
Fool'd by those rebel powers that thee array, 
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth, 
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay ? 
Why so large cost, having so short a lease, 
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend ? 
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess, 
Eat up thy charge. Is this thy body's end ? 
Then, soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss, 
And let that pine to aggravate thy store ; 



(a) "Does it appear to you to be becoming in a philosopher to 
be anxious about pleasures; as they are called, such as meats and 
drinks ? " 

" By no means, Socrates," said Simmias. 

"What then? Does such a man appear to you to think other 
bodily indulgences of value ? For instance, does he seem to you to 
value or despise the possession of magnificent garments,* and sandals, 
and other ornaments of the body, except as far as necessity compels 
him to use them ? " 

" The true philosopher," he answered, "appears tome to despise 
them." 

"Does not, then," he continued, "the whole employment of 
such a man appear to you to be, not about the body, but to separate 
himself from it as much as possible, and be occupied about his 
soul ? " 

"It does." Plato. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 2 1 

Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross, 
Within be fed, without be rich no more, {b) 

Poems. 

I will begin 
The fashion — less without and more within. 

Cymbeline, Act v., Scene 1. 



XL 

EVIL PRAYERS GRANTED. 

He gave them their request, and sent leanness 
into their soul. Psalm cvi. 1;. 



{[>) What fool was ever fond of the orient colours of a bubble ? 
Who ever -was at the cost to glid a mud wall, or to embroider that 
tent which he must remove to-morrow? Bishop Hall. 

Purchase the next world with this ; so shalt thou win both. 

Arabic Proverb. 

We smile at little children who, in a kind of laborious idleness, 
take a great deal of- pains to make and trim their babies, or build 
their little houses of sticks and straws. And what are they but 
children of a bigger size, that keep such ado about the body, — a 
house of clay, a weak pile, that must 'perish in a few days ? 

Flavel. 

Maintain this sound and salutary way of living — so far only to 
indulge the body, as to preserve it in good health. Despise those 
superfluities which needless labour acquires by way of ornament or 
credit. Think there is nothing admirable in thee but the soul. 

Seneca. 



2 2 Bible Truths, with 

We ignorant of ourselves 
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers 
Deny us for our good ; so find we profit 
By losing of our prayers, (a) 

Antony and Cleopatra, Act n., Scene i. 

XII. 

RASH JUDGING REPROVED. 

Judge not, that ye be not judged. Why be- 
holdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, 
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own 
eye ? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out 
of thine own eye ; and then shalt thou see clearly 
to cast out the mote of thy brother's eye. 1 

Matt. vii. i, 3, 5. 

Who art thou that judgest another man's ser- 
vant ? to his own master he standeth or falleth. 
Let us not therefore judge one another any more. 

Rom. xiv. 4, 13. 

(a) I need pray again for strength to bear, the answers to my 
prayers. Bishop Pearce. 

God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, 
And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face — 
A gauntlet with a gift in't. 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 
There is a gain that turneth to loss. There is a gift that shall not 
profit thee. Ecclus. xx. 9, 10. 

1 Rom. ii. I ; I Cor. iv. 3, 5 ; James ii. 13, iv. II, 12. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 23 

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye 
which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit 
of meekness ; considering thyself, lest thou also be 
tempted. 2 Gal. vi. 1. 

Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Exe- 
cute true judgment, and shew mercy and compas- 
sion every man to his brother. Zech. vii. 9. 

He that is without sin among you, let him first 
cast a stone. John viii. 7. 

Wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest 
thyself. Rom. ii. 1. 



Go to your bosom : 
Knock there ; and ask your heart what it doth know. 
That's like thy brother's fault. If it confess 
A natural guiltiness, such as his is, 
Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue 
Against thy brother, (a) 

Measure for Measure, Act 11., Scene 2. 



2 1 Cor. x. 12. 

(a) If a man would but truly and impartially examine himself, he 
would find but little cause to judge severely of his neighbours. 

Thomas A'Kempis. 



24 Bible Truths, with 

We cannot "weigh our brother with ourself. (b) 
Measure for Measure, Act il, Scene 2. 



Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all. 

King Henry VI., 2nd Part, Act in., Scene 3. 



Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men ? 
Timon of Athens, Act v., Scene 1. 



Most mischievous, foul sin chiding sin. 

As You Like It, Act 11., Scene 7. 



Sweep away the snow from thine own door, and heed not the frost 
upon thy neighbour's tiles. Chinese Proverb. 

Why are you so sharp-sighted, O malicious fellow, after your 
neighbour's faults, while you overlook your own. 

Plutarch. 
While you carelessly pass by 
Your own worst vices with unheeding eye, 
Why so sharp-sighted in another's fame, 
Strong as an eagle's ken, or dragon's beam ? 
But know that he with equal spleen shall view, 
With equal vigour shall your faults pursue. 
Search your own breast, and mark with honest bare, 
What seeds of folly nature planted there. 

Horace. 

{b) No man can judge another, because no man knows himself, 
for we censure others but as they disagree from that humour which 
we fancy laudable in ourselves, and commend others but for that 
wherein they seem to quadrate and consent with us. So that, in the 
conclusion, all is but that we all condemn — self-love. 

Sir Thomas Brown. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 

Though justice be thy plea, consider this, — 
That, in the course of justice, none of us 
Should see salvation. 

Merchant of Venice, Act iv., Scene 



Shame to him whose cruel striking 
Kills for faults of his own liking, (c). 

Measure for Measure, Act in., Scene i. 



(<•) The censorious humour, as it argueth ill-nature to be pre- 
dominant, (a vulturous nature which easily smelleth out, and hastily 
flieth toward, and greedily feedeth on carrion,) so it signifieth bad 
conscience ! For he that knoweth evil of himself is' most prone to 
suspect, and most quick to pronounce, ill concerning others, so it 
breedeth and fostereth such ill dispositions ; it debaucheth the minds 
of men, rendering them dim and dottish in apprehending their own 
faults, negligent and heedless in regard to their own hearts and ways, 
apt to please and comfort themselves in the evils, real or imaginary, 
of their neighbours ; which to do is a very barbarous and brutish 
practice. Barrow. 

Let us no more contend, or blame 
Each other, blamed enough elsewhere, but strive, 
In offices of love, how we may lighten 
Each other's burden, in our share of woe. 

Milton. 
Who made the heart, 'tis He alone 

Decidedly can try us ; 
He knows each chord its various tone, 

Each spring its various bias ; 
Then at the balance let's be mute ; 

We never cari adjust it ; 
What's done we partly may compute, 
But know not what's resisted. 

Burns. 



Bible Truths, with 



XIII. 

ALL EVIL RECOILS UPON -THE EVIL 
DOER. 

Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein ; x and he 
that rolleth a stone, it shall return upon him. 

Prov. xxvi. 27. 

They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, 
reap the same. 2 By the blast of God they perish, 
and by the breath of his nostrils are they con- 
sumed. Job iv. 8, 9. 

He that pursueth evil, pursueth it to his own 
death. Prov. xi. 19. 

Woe unto the wicked ! it shall be ill with him ; 
for the reward of his hands shall be given him. 3 

Is a. iii. 11. 

He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own 
soul. 4 Prov. viii. 36. 

Their sword shall enter into their own heart. 

Ps. xxxvii. 15. 



1 Ps. vii. 15, 16. 3 Rom. ii. 9. 

2 Gal. vi. 8. 4 Isa. iii. 8. 



Shakspeai'ian Parallels. 27 

In the net which they hid is their own foot taken. 
The wicked it snared in the work of his hands. 

Ps. ix. 15, 16. 

Evil pursueth sinners. Prov. xiii. 21. 

They have sown the wind, and they shall reap 
the whirlwind. Hos. viii. 7. 

Whereas men have lived dissolutely and un- 
righteously, thou hast tormented them with their 
own abominations. Wisdom xii. 23. 

He that followeth corruption shall have enough 
thereof. 3 Ecclus. xxxi. 5. 

All iniquity is a two-edged sword. 

Ecclus. xxi. 3. 

Wherewithal a man sinneth, by the same also 
shall he be punished. Wisdom xi. 16. 



What mischief work the wicked ones, 
Heaping confusion on their own heads thereby. 
King Henry VI., 2nd Part, Act 11., Scene 1. 



Job xx. 11, 14. 



28 Bible Truths, with 

Accidental judgments, casual slaughters, 
And deaths put on by cunning and forced cause 
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook 
Fallen on the inventors' heads. 

Hamlet, Act v., Scene 2. 

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices 
Make instruments to scourge us. 

King Lear, Act v., Scene 3. 

Pleasure will be paid, one time or another. 

Twelfth Night, Act 11., Scene 4. 

Thus doth he force the swords of wicked men 
To turn their own points on their masters' bosoms. 
King Richard III., Act v., Scene 1. 

In these cases 
We still have judgment here : that we but teach 
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return, 
To plague the inventor ; this even-handed justice 
Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice 

To our own lips. 

Macbeth, Act 1., Scene 7. 



He is justly served ; 
It is a poison tempered by himself. 

Hamlet, Act v., Scene 2. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 29 

Sowed cockle, reap'd no corn. 

Love's Labour's Lost, Art vi., Scene 3. 

O error, soon conceived, 
Thou never com'st unto a happy birth, 
But killest the mother that engender'd thee, (a) 
Julius Cesar, Art v., Scene 3. 

I told you all, 
When we first put this dangerous stone a-rolling, 
'Twould fall upon ourselves. 

King Henry VIII., Art v.,, Scene 2. 

Unnatural deeds breed unnatural troubles. (/;) 
Macbeth, Arty., Scene 1. 



(a) He that sows thorns, let him not walk barefoot. 

Proverb. 

{/') By the very constitution of our nature, Moral Evil is its own 
curse. Chalmers. 

But evil on itself shall back recoil, 
And mix no more with goodness ; when at last, 
Gather'd like scum, and settled to itself, 
It shall be in eternal restless change, 
Self-fed and self-consumed ; if this fail, 
The pillar'd firmament is rottenness, 
And earth's base built on stubble. 

Milton. 
(e) Nature is too good a legislator to pass any act without annex- 
ing a smart penalty to the violation of it. 

Sydney Smith. 

The giants piled the lofty mountains to the stars, and prepared to 
wage war against mighty Jove ; but Jove hurling his thunder from 



30 Bible Truths, with 

Our natures do pursue 
(Like rats that ravin down their proper bane) 
A thirsty evil ; and when we drink, we die. (c) 
Measure for Measure, Act i., Scene 3. 

Sin gathering head, 
Shall break into corruption. 

King Henry IV., 2nd Part, Act in., Scene 1. 

Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of 

blame. 

King Richard III., Act v., Scene 1. 



XIV. 
GOVERNMENT UNDER A CHILD. 

Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child. 

Eccles. x. 16 



the height of heaven, threw back the huge masses upon the perpe- 
trators of this impiety. Ovid. 

Surely no one, either of the gods or'men, dare maintain this, that 
he who acts unjustly ought not to suffer punishment. 

Plato. 
(<:) Vice, that digs its own voluptuous tomb. ' 

Byron. 

That which is sin in. the field is death in the harvest. 

AESCHYLUS. 



Skakspearian Pa nil 'Lis. 3 

Woe to the land that's govern'd by a child. 

King Richard III., Act 11., Scene 3. 



XV. 
CHRISTIAN CHARITY. 

,ove is the fulfilling of the law. 1 Rom. xiii. 10. 



Charity itself fulfils the law. (a) 

Love's Labour's Lost, Activ., Scene 3. 



XVI. 
UNFAITHFUL FRIENDS. 

Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I 
trusted, which did eat my bread, hath lifted up 
his heel against me. Ps. xli. 9. 

It was not an enemy that reproached me ; then 



1 I Cor. xiii. 4 — 7. 
[a) Only add 

Deeds to thy knowledge answerable, and Faith 
And Virtue, Patience, Temperance, and Love, 
By name to come call'd Charity — the soul 
Of all the rest. Milton. 



32 Bible Truths, with 

I could have borne it : neither was it he that hated 
me that did magnify himself against me ; then I 
would have hid myself from him : but it was thou, 
a man mine equal, and mine acquaintance. We 
took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the 
house of God in company. Ps. lv. 12 — 14. 

They that eat thy bread have laid a wound 
under thee. Obad. 7. 



Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand 
For lifting food to 't ? 

King Lear, Act in., Scene 4. 

Who should be trusted now, when one's right hand 
Is perjured to the bosom ? 

Two'Gentlemen of Verona, Act v., Scene 4. 

The private wound is deepest ; O time most curst ; 
'Mongst all foes that a friend should be the worst. 
Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act v., Scene 4. 

For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel • 
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him ! 
This was the most unkindest cut of all ; 
For when the noble Caesar saw him stab, 



Shakspearian Parallels. $o 

Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms, 
Quite vanquished him; then burst his mighty heart. 
Julius Caesar, Act in., Scene 2. 

Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow, 

Whom he hath cloy'd and graced with princely 

favours, 
That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell 
His sovereign's life to death and treachery ! 

King Henry V., Act 11.. Scene 2. 



XVII. 

THE COURAGE OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE 
AND THE COWARDICE OF A BAD ONE. 

The wicked flee when no man pursueth ; x but the 
righteous are bold as a lion. Prov. xxviii. 1. 

The Lord is my light and my salvation ; whom 
shall I fear ? the Lord is the strength of my life ; 
of whom shall I be afraid ? 2 Ps. xxvii. 1. 

When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, 
and perceived that they were unlearned and igno- 

1 Gen. iii. 9, 10. 2 Isa. xii. 2. 



34 Bible Truths, with 

rant men, they marvelled ; and they took know- 
ledge of them that they had been with Jesus. 3 

-Acts iv. 13. 

And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your 
soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do 
all my commandments, but that ye break my 
covenant, I also will do this unto you : I will even 
appoint over you a terror, consumption, and the 
burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and 
cause sorrow of heart ; and ye shall flee when none 
pursueth you. Lev. xxvi. 15 — 17. 

The sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them ; 
and they shall flee as fleeing from a sword ; and 
they shall fall when none pursueth. Lev. xxvi. 36. 

Then were they in great fear where no fear was.* 

PS. liii. 5. 

For wickedness condemned by her own witness 

is very timorous, and being pressed with conscience, 

always forecasteth grievous things. : 

Wisdom xvii. 11. 



What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted ? 
Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just ; 



3 Isa. xxx. 15. 4 Erov. x. 24. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 35 

And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel, 
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. 

King Henry VI., ind Par/, Act ill., Scene 2. 

Conscience, it makes a man a coward. 

King Richard III. ^ Act 1., Scene 4. 

Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. 

Measure for Measure, Act in., Scene 1. 

A heart unspotted is not easily daunted. 

King Henry VI., ind Part, Act in., Scene 1. 

How is't with me when every noise appals me ? 
Macbeth, Act 11., Scene 2. 

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind ; 
The thief doth fear each bush an officer, (a) 

King Henry VI., yd Part, Act v., Scene 6. 



(a) Fancy runs most furiously when a guilty conscience drives it. 
One that owed much money, and had many creditors, as he walked 
London streets in the evening, a tenterhook catched his cloak ; "At 
whose suit?" said he, conceiving some bailiff had arrested him. 
Thus guilty consciences are afraid where no fear is, and count every 
creature they meet a sergeant sent from God to punish them . 

Fuller. 

The power of conscience is very great, O judges, and is of great 
weight on both sides : so that they fear nothing who have done no 
wrong ; and they, on the other hand, who have done wrong think 
that punishment is always hanging over them. Cicero. 



36 Bible Truths, with 

A wicked conscience 
Mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy thoughts, (b) 



XVIII. 

THE WRETCHEDNESS OF A BAD 
CONSCIENCE. 

There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the 
wicked. 1 Isa. xlviii. 22. 

The wicked are like the troubled sea when it 
cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. 2 

Isa. lvii. 20. 

Among these nations shalt thou find no ease, 
neither shall the sole-of thy foot' have rest; but 
the Lord shall give them a trembling heart, and 
failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind : and thy life 
shall hang in doubt before thee ; and thou shalt 
fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance 
of thy life. Deut. xxviii. 65, 66. 

(b) But they, sleeping the same sleep that night, which was, 
indeed, intolerable, and which came upon them out of the bottom of 
inevitable hell, were partly vexed with monstrous apparitions, and 
partly fainted, their heart failing them ; for a sudden fear, and not 
looked for, 'came upon them. Wisdom xvii. 14, 15 (to the end). 

O wickedness, ever cowardly ! Statixjs. 

1 Rom. iii. 16; 17. , ■ " 2 J uc ^ e I2 > r 3- 



Shakspearian Parallels. 37 

The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days. 
A dreadful sound is in his ears ; in prosperity the 
destroyer shall come upon him. He believeth not 
that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited 
for of the sword. Trouble and anguish shall make 
him afraid : and they shall prevail against him as a 
king ready to battle. Job xv. 20, 21, 22, 24. 



Conscience is a thousand swords. 

King Richard III., Act v., Scene 2. 

Great guilt, 
Like poison given to work a great time after, 
Now 'gins to bite the spirits. 

The Tempest, Act in., Scene 3. 

The clogging burden of a guilty soul. 

King Richard II., Act 1., Scene 3. 

Better be with the dead, 

Than on the torture of the mind to lie, 

In restless ecstasy. 

Macbeth, Act hi., Scene 2. 

To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is, 
Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss ; 
So full of artless jealousy is guilt, 
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. 

Hamlet, Act iv., Scene 5. 



38 Bible Truths, with 

111 haunt thee like a guilty conscience still. 

Troilus and Cressida, Act v., Scene 2. 

Between the action of a dreadful thing 
And the first motion, all the interim is 
Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream ; 
The genius and the mortal instruments 
Are then in council ; and the state of man, 
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then 
The nature of an insurrection. 

Julius Cesar, Act 11., Scene 1. 

Conscience, conscience, 
Oh, 'tis a tender place. 

King Henry VI if Act 11., Scene 2. 

Leave her to heaven, 
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge, 
To prick and sting her. (a) 

Hamlet, Act 1., Scene 5. 



(a) Let his tormentor, Conscience, find him out. 

MILTON. 

There is no future pang 
Can deal that justice on the self-condemn'd 
He deals on his own soul. Byron. 

Trust me, no torture which the poets feign 
Can match the fierce, the unutterable pain 
He feels who, night and day, devoid of rest, 
Carries his own accuser in his breast. 

Juvenal. 



Shakspearian Parallel?. 39 

The worm of conscience. 

King Richard III., Act 1., Scene 3. 

Oh, it is monstrous, monstrous ! 
Methought the billows spoke, and told me of it ; 
The wind did .sing it to me ; and the thunder, 
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced 
The name of Prosper ; it did bass my trespass, (b) 
The Tempest, Act in., Scene 3. 

O wretched state ! O bosom, black as death ! 

O limed soul, that, struggling to be free, 

Art more engaged ! (c) 

Hamlet, Act in., Scene 3. 



To be unhappy, 
And know ourselves alone the guilty cause 
Of all our sorrow, is the worst of woes. 

Sophocles. 

{b) Many a lash in the dark doth conscience give the wicked. 

Boston. 
Xo man ever offended his own conscience, but, first or last, it was 
revenged upon him for it. SOUTH. 

{c) He that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts, 
Benighted, walks under the midday sun, 
Himself is his own dungeon. MlLTON. 

Will not the man who appears the most wicked, appear likewise 
the most wretched? Of necessity it must be so. Plato. 

The mind that broods o'er guilty woes 
Is like the scorpion girt by fire ; 
In circle narrowing as it glows, 
The flames around their captive close. 

Byron. 



40 Bible Truths, with 



XIX. 

THE BLESSEDNESS OF A GOOD 
CONSCIENCE. 

The work of righteousness shall be peace ; and 
the effect of righteousness quietness arid assurance 
for ever. 1 is a. xxxii. 17. 

A good man shall be satisfied from himself. 

Prov. xiv. 14. 

Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that 
thing which he alloweth. 2 Rom. xiv. 22. 

Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have 
we confidence toward God. 3 1 John iii. 21. 

For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our 
conscience, (a) 2 Cor. i. 12. 



Behold the wretch with conscious dread, 
In pointed vengeance o'er his head, 

Who views the impending sword ; 
Nor dainties force his pall'd desire, 
Nor chant of birds, nor vocal lyre, 

To him can sleep afford. 

Horace. 

1 Ps. cxix. 165 ; Isa. xlviii. 18. 2 Acts xxiv. 16. 3 Job xxvii. 6. 

[a) The conscience of good intentions, however succeeding, is a 



Shakspcaricui Parallels. 41 

Blessed is he whose conscience had not con- 
demned him, and who is not fallen from his hope in 
the Lord. Ecclus. xiv. 2. 



I feel within me 
A peace above all earthly dignities, 
A still and quiet conscience. 

King HENRY VIII., Act I., Scene 3. 

Truth hath a quiet breast, (b) 

King Richard II., Act I., Scene 3. 

A good conscience will make any possible satis- 
faction. 

King Henry IV., 2nd Part, Act v., Scene 5. 



more continual joy to nature than all the provision which can be made 
for our security and repose. Bacon. 

He that has light within his own clear breast 
May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day. 

Milton. 

(l>) A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body 
it preserves a constant ease and serenity within us, and more than 
countervails all the calamities and afflictions which possibly can be- 
fall us. • Addison. 

A palsy may as .well shake an oak, or a fever dry up a fountain, 
as either of them shake, dry up, or impair the delight of conscience ; 
for it lies within, it centres in the heart, it grows into the very sub- 
stance of the soul, so that it accompanies a man to his grave. 

South. 



42 Bible Truths, with 

XX. 

ACCOUNTABILITY TO GOD. 

But I say unto you, that every idle word that 
men shall speak they shall give account thereof in 
the day of judgment. 1 Matt. xii. 36. 

God shall bring every work into judgment, with 
every secret thing, whether it be good or evil. 2 

Eccles. xii. 14. 

So then every one of us shall give account of 
himself to God. 3 Rom. xiv. 12. 



For what I speak 
My body shall make good upon this earth, 
Or my divine soul answer it in heaven. 

King Richard II., Act 1., Scene 1. 

Oh, when the last account 'twixt heaven andearth 
Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal 
Witness against us to damnation. 

King John, Act iv., Scene 2. 

1 Jude 14, 15. 3 Rom. ii. 16. 

2 2 Cor. v. IO, II ; Rev. xx. 12. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 43 



XXI. 

THE COMFORTS OF A CONTENTED LIFE 
CONTRASTED WITH THE TROUBLES 
OF GREATNESS. 

Better is an handful with quietness, than both 
hands full with travail and vexation of spirit. 

Eccles. iv. 6. 

There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath 
nothing ; there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath 
great riches. 1 Prov. xiii. 7. 

As having nothing, yet possessing all things. 2 

2 Cor. vi. 10. 

Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Con- 
sider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in 
little ; ye eat, but ye have not enough ; ye drink, 
but ye are not filled with drink ; ye clothe ye,*but 
there is none warm ; and he that earneth wages, 
earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. 3 

Hagc .1 1. 5, 6. 

Take heed and beware of <■ ^vetousness ; for a 



Philip, iii. 7 — 9. 3 Micah 



44 Bible Truths, with 

man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the 
things which he possesseth. 4 Luke xii. 15. 

Godliness with contentment is great gain. 

1 Tim. vi. 6. 

Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than 
great treasure and trouble therewith, (a) 

Prov. xv. 16. 



'Tis better to be lowly born, 
And range with humble livers in content, 
Than to be perk'd up in a glistering grief, 
And wear a golden sorrow. 

King Henry VI II., Act 11., Scene 3. 

Nought's had, all's spent, 
Where our desire is got without content, (b) 

Macbeth, Act in., Scene 2. 

4 l Tim. vi. 17 ; Matt. xiii. 22. 

(a) I have a rich neighbour that is always so busy that he has no 
leisure to laugh — the whole business of his life is to get money. He 
is .still drudging on, saying that Solomon says, ' ' The hand of the 
diligent , "iketh rich." And it is true indeed ; but he considers not 
that it is not hi the power of riches to make a man happy ; for it 
was wisely said 0/ a man of great observation, " That there are as 
many miseries beyono. .riches as on this side of them." God grant 
that, having a competency, .?'e may be contort aiRri' thankful. 

ISAAK 'tfvVAJ.XON. 

(6) Contentment consisteth not in adding more fuel, but in taking 
away some fire ; not in multiplying of wealth, but in subtracting 



Shakspearian Parallels. 45 

Poor, and content, is rich, and rich enough ; 
But riches fineless, is as poor as winter 
To him that ever fears he shall be poor, (c) 

Othello, Act in., Scene 3. 

My crown is in my heart, not on my head ; 
Not deck'd with diamonds and Indian stones, 
Nor to be seen ; my crown is call'd content! 
A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy, id) 

King Henry VI., yd Part, Act ill., Scene 1. 



men's desires. Worldly riches, like nuts, tear many clothes in 
getting them, but fill no belly with eating them, obstructing only 
the stomach with toughness, and filling the bowels with windiness. 
Yea, your souls may sooner surfeit than be satisfied with earthly 
things. Fuller. 

(c) Is that animal better that hath two or three mountains to graze 
on than a little bee that feeds on dew and manna, and lives upon 
what falls every morning from the storehouses of heaven," clouds, and 
Providence? Can a man quench his thirst better out of a river than 
a full urn, or drink better from the fountain which is finely paved 
with marble than when it wells over the green truf ? 

Jeremy Taylor. 
Surely the state of man is such, 
They greatly want who covet much ; 
Then happy he whom Heaven has fed 
With frugal, but sufficient bread. 

Horace. 

(d) Alas ! if the principles of contentment are not within us, 
height of station and worldly grandeur will as soon add a cubit to a 
man's stature as to his happiness. Sterne. 

The truth, then, ought to be deeply printed in minds studious of 
wisdom and their own content, that they bear their happiness or 
unhappiness within their breast. Du Moulin. 

The great blessings of life are within us, but we shut our eyes. 

Seneca. 



46 Bible Truths, with 

Oh, the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us ! 
Who would not wish from wealth to be exempt, 
Since riches point to misery and contempt ? 
Who'd be so % mock'd with glory ? or to live 
But in a dream of friendship ? 
To have his pomp, and all what state compounds, 
But only painted, like his varnish'd friends ? (e) 
Timon of Athens, Act iv., Scene 2. 



(<?) There are many men who appear to be struggling against 
adversity, and are yet happy ; but yet more, who, though abounding 
in wealth, are miserable. Tacitus. 

It's no in titles, nor in rank ; 
It's no in wealth like Lon'on bank, 

To purchase peace and rest ; 
It's no in making mucklemair, 
It's no in books, it's no in lear, 

To make us truly blest ; 
If happiness hae not her seat 

And centre in the breast, 
We may be wise, or rich, or great, 

But never can be blest : 
•Nae treasures, nor pleasures, 

Could make us happy lang ; 
The heart aye's the part aye 
That makes us right or wrang. 

Burns. 
O mortals, whither are you hurrying ? What are you about ? 
Why do you tumble up and down, wretches, like blind men ? You 
are going a wrong way, and have forsaken the right. You seek 
prosperity and happiness in a wrong place, where it is not. It is 
not in body ; if you do not believe me, look upon Myro, — look upon 
Ofellius. It is not in wealth ; if you do not believe me, look upon 
Croesus, —look upon the rich of the present age, how full of lamen- 
tation their life is. It is not in power ; for otherwise they who have 
been twice or thrice consuls must be happy ; but they are not. 

Epictetus. 



Shafcspearian Parallels. 47 

Our content 
Is our best having. (/) 

King Henry VIII., Act 11., Scene 3. 

Most miserable 
Is the desire that's glorious ; blessed be those, 
How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills, 
Which seasons comfort. 

Cymbeline, Act 1., Scene 7. 



If all the world were his, he (the happy man) could be no other 
than he is, no whit gladder of himself, no whit higher in his carriage, 
because he knows contentment is not in the things he hath, but in 
the mind which values them. -Bishop Hall. 

It is the body that keeps the clothes warm, not the clothes the 
body ; and the spirit of a man makes felicity and content, not any 
spoils of a rich fortune wrapt about a sickly and an uneasy soul. 

Jeremy Taylor. 

(/) Some have too much, yet still they crave ; 

I little have, yet seek no more ; 
They are but poor, though much they have : 

And I am rich, with little store ; 
They poor, I rich ; they beg, I give ; 
They lack, I lend ; they pine, I live. 

Old Ballad. 
I can never think him a poor man who has still enough, however 
small a portion it may be, wherewith to be content. 

Seneca. 
It is the mynd that maketh good or ill, 
That maketh wretch or happie, rich or poore ; 
For some that have abundance at his will 
Hath not enough, but wants in greatest store, 
And other that hath little asks no more. 

Spenser. 



48 Bible Truths, with 

Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade 
To shepherds looking on their silly sheep, 
Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy 
To kings that fear their subjects' treachery ? 
O yes, it doth ; a thousandfold it doth. 

The shepherd's homely curds, 
His cold, thin drink out of his leathern bottle, 
His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade, 
All which secure and sweetly he enjoys, 
Is far beyond a prince's delicates ; 
His viands sparkling in a golden cup, 
His body couched in a curious bed, 
When care, mistrust, and treason wait on him. (g) 
King Henry VI., yd Part, Act il, Scene 5. 



(«•) Many men eat finer cookery, drink dearer liquors, with what 
advantage they can report and their doctors can ; but in the heart 
of them, if we go out of the dyspeptic stomach, what increase of 
blessedness is there ? Are they better, beautifuller, stronger, braver ? 
Are they even what they call happier ? Do they look with satisfaction 
on more things and human faces in this foci's) earth ? Do more 
things and human faces look with satisfaction on them ? Not so. 

Carlyle. 

How true is the maxim of Plato, that " The man who would be 
truly happy should not study to enlarge his estate, but to contract 
his desires." Plutarch. 

Fortune does us neither good nor hurt ; she only presents us the 
matter and the seed, which our soul, more powerful than she, turns 
and applies as she best pleases, being the sole cause and mistress of 
her own happy or unhappy condition. All external accessions re- 
ceive taste and colour from the internal constitution, as clothes 
warm us, not with their heat, but our own, which they are adapted 
to cover or keep in. Montaigne. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 49 

O polish'd perturbation ! golden care ! 
That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide 
To many a watchful night ! * — sleep with it now! 
Yet not so sound, and half do deeply sweet, 
As he whose brow, with homely biggin bound, 
Snores out the watch of night. O majesty ! 
When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit 
Like a rich armour, worn in the heat of day, 
That scalds with safety. f (//) 

King Hexry IV., 2nd Part, Act iv., Scene 4. 



* The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or 
much ; but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. 

ECCLES. V. 12. 

t Shakspeare gives us another illustration of "golden care," or 
"great treasure and trouble therewith," in the following sonnet : — 
The aged man that coffers up his gold 
Is plagued with cramps, and gouts, and painful fits, 
And scarce has eyes his treasure to behold, 
But like still-pining Tantalus he sits, 
And useless barns the harvest of his wits ; 
Having no other pleasure of his gain, 
But torment that it cannot cure his pain. 
So then he hath it when he cannot use it, 
And leaves it to be master'd by his young ; 
Who in their pride do presently abuse it ; 
Their father was too weak, and they too strong, 
To hold their cursed-blessed fortune long. 
The sweets we wish for turn to loathed sours, 
Even in the moment that we call them ours. 

{/i) Many weak and'ignorant persons say, "Behold, how happy 
a state doth that man enjoy ! How rich, how great, how powerful 
and exalted ! " But turn thy attention to the unfading glories and 
unperishing riches of eternity, and thou wilt perceive that all these 



50 Bible Truths, with 

Often, to our comfort, shall we find 
The sharded beetle in a safer hold 
Than is the full-wing'd eagle. 

Cymbeline, Act in., Scene 5. 

They that stand high have many blasts to shake 

them, 
And when they fall they dash themselves to pieces. 
King Richard III., Act 1., Scene 3. 

Best state, contentless, 
Hath a distracted and most wretched being, 
Worse than the worst content. (/) 

Timon of Athens, Act iv„ Scene 3. 



temporal advantages are of no value. Their acquisition and con- 
tinuance are uncertain, and their enjoyment painful ; for they are 
never possessed without solitude and fear. 

Thomas A'Kempis. 

Can wealth give happiness? look round, and see 
Wi at gay distress ! what splendid misery ! 
Whatever fortune lavishly can pour, 
The mind annihilates, and calls for more. 

Young. 
It ne'er was wealth, it ne'er was wealth, 
That coft contentment, peace, and pleasure. 

Burns. 

(/) He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek 
happiness by changing anything but his own dispositions, will waste 
his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs which he purposes 
to. remove. Johnson. 

Rest unto our souls — 'tis all we want ; the end of all our wishes 
and pursuits. Give us a prospect of this, we take the wings of the 
morning, and fly to the uttermost parts of the earth to have it in 



Skakspearian Parallels. 5 1 

XXII. 
MURDER CANNOT BE HIDDEN. 

And he said, What hast thou done ? the voice 
of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the 
ground. Gen. iv. 10. 

Sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall 
pursue thee. Ezek. xxxv. 6. 

Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his 
blood be shed. Gen. ix. 6. 



Blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries 
Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth. 

King Richard II., Act 1., Scene 1. 



possession, till after many miserable experiments, we have been 
seeking everywhere for it but where there is a prospect of finding 
it ; and that is within ourselves, in a meek and lowly disposition of 
heart. Sterne. . 

Vain, very vain, my weary search to find 
That bliss which only centres in the mind ; 
How small of all that human hearts endure 
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure ; 
Still to ourselves in every place consigned, 
Our own felicity we make or find. 

Goldsmith. 



52 Bible Truths, with 

Blood will have blood ; 
Stones have been known to move, and trees to 

speak ; 
Augurs and understood relations have, 
By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought 

forth 
The secret'st man of blood. 

Macbeth, Act in., Scene 4. 

Truth will come to light ; murder cannot be hid 

long. 

Merchant of Venice, Act 11., Scene 1. 

Guiltiness will speak, 
Though tongues were out of use. 

Othello, Act v., Scene 1. 

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak, 
With most miraculous organ. 

Hamlet, Act n., Scene 2. 

Friend of brother, 
He forfeits his own blood that spills another, (a) 
Timon of Athens, Act in.. Scene 5. 



(a) The great King of kings 

Hath in the table of His 'law commanded 
That "thou shalt do no murder.''" 

King Richard III., Act 1., Scene 4. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 53 



XXIII. 

FALSEHOOD. 

Ye have said, When the overflowing scourge shall 
pass through, it shall not come unto us : for we 
have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood 
have we hid ourselves. Isa. xxviii. 15. 



Take heed, 
Lest He who is the supreme King of kings 
Confound your hidden falsehood. 

King Richard III., Act 11., Scene 1. 



XXIV. 

DEATH THE END OF ALL EARTHLY 
PASSIONS AND TROUBLES. 

There the wicked cease from troubling, and the 
weary are at rest. job iii. 17. 

Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy 
is now perished. Eccles. ix. 6. 



Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe. 
King Richard II., Act 11., Scene 1, 



54 Bible Truths, with 

Here lurks no treason, here no envy swells ; 
Here grow no damned grudges ; here are no 

storms ; 
No noise, but silence and eternal sleep, (a) 

Titus Andronicus, Act i., Scene 2. 

The arbitrator of despairs, 
Just death, kind umpire of men's miseries. 

Henry VI., \st Part, Act 11., Scene 5. 

Fear no more the frown o' the great, 
Thou art past the tyrant's stroke ; 

Care no more to clothe and eat ; 
To thee the reed is as the oak : 



(a) ■ " Consider well," the voice replied, 

" His face that two hours since hath died ; 
Wilt thou find pas.sion, pain, or pride ? 

Will he obey when one commands ; 

Or answer, should one press his hands ? 

He answers not, nor understands. 

His palms are folded on his breast ; 

There is no other thing express'd 

But long disquiet merged in rest. 

His lips are very mild and meek ; 

Though one should smite him on the cheek, 

And on the mouth, he will not speak." 

Tennyson. 
Death is the most delightful refuge of the unfortunate. 

Herodotus. 

The tearless dead forget their troubles. Euripides. 

So numerous are the evils of life, that death is given to man : 

his chief good. Pliny. 



Shakspcarian Parallels. 55 

Fear no more the lightning flash, 

Nor the dreaded thunder-stone ; 
Fear not slander, censure rash ; 

Thou hast finish'd joy and moan. 

Cymbeline, Act iv., Scene 2. 



XXV. 

DEATH COMMON TO ALL. 

There is one event to the righteous, 1 and to the 
wicked ; to the good, and to the clean, and to the 
unclean. Eccles. ix. 2. 

And I myself perceived also that one event hap- 
peneth to them all. Eccles. ii. 14. 

The small and the great are there ; .and the ser- 
vant is free from his master. Job iii. 19. 

There is no man that hath power over the spirit 
to retain the spirit ; neither hath he power in the 
day of death ; and there is no discharge in that 
war. 2 Eccles. viii. 3. 

And how dieth the wise man ? as the fool. 3 

Eccles. ii. 16. 

1 Lsa. lvii. i, 2. 2 Gen. iii. 19. 3 Job xxi. 26. 



56 Bible Truths, with 

For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool 
and the brutish person perish, and leave their 
wealth to others. Ps. xlix. 10. 

It is appointed unto men once to die. 4 

Heb. ix. 27. 

The beggar died, and was carried by the angels 
into Abraham's bosom ; the rich man also died, 
and was buried. Luke xvi. 22. 



'Tis common ; all that live must die 
Passing through nature to eternity. 

Hamlet, Act I., Scene 2. 

Mean and mighty, rotting 
Together, have one dust, (a) 

Cymbeline, Act VI., Scene 2. 

4 Rom. v. 12. 

[a] Death conies equally to us all, and makes us all equal when 
it comes. The ashes of an oak in a chimney are no epitaph of that, 
to tell me how high, or how large, that was ; it tells me not what 
flocks it sheltered while it stood, nor what men it hurt when it fell. 
The dust of great persons' graves is speechless too ; it says nothing, 
it distinguishes nothing. As soon the dust of a wretch whom thou 
wouldest not, as of a prince whom thou couldest not, look upon, will 
trouble thine eyes if the wind blow it thither ; and when a whirlwind 
hath blown the dust of the churchyard into the church, and the man 
sweeps out the dust of the church into the churchyard, who will un- 
dertake to sift those dusts again ; and to pronounce, "This is the 



Skakspearian Parallels. 57 

We cannot hold mortality's strong hand. 

King John, Act iv., Scene 2. 

Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust ? 
And live we how we can, yet die we must. 

King Henry VI., yd Part, Act v., Scene 2. 

Time doth transfix the nourish set on youth, 
And delves the parallels in beauty's brow ! 
Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth, 
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow. 

Poems. 

Nothing can we call our own but death, 
And that small model of the barren earth 
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones. 

King Richard II., Act 11., Scene 2. 

That fell arrest 
Without all * bail, (b) Poems. 



patrician, this is the noble flower, and this the yeoman, this the 
plebeian bran ! " — Donne. 

With equal pace, impartial fate 
Knocks at the palace as the cottage gate. 

Horace. 
Earth impartial, entertains 
Her various sons, and in her breast 
Princes and beggars equal rest. 

Horace. 
* i.e., Without any bail. 

(/>) A man may escape the wars by pleading privilege of years, 



58 Bible Truths, with 

Kings and mighty potentates must die, 
For that's the end of human misery, (c) 

King Henry VI., 1st Part, Act in., Scene 2. 

He who commands a nation 
Hath no commandment o'er the pulse of life. 

King John, Act iv., Scene 2. 



or weakness of body, or the king's protection, or by sending another 
in his room, but in this war the press is so strict that it admits no 
dispensation ; young or old, weak or strong, willing or unwilling, 
all. is one — into the field we must go, and look that last and most 
dreadful enemy in the face. It is in vain to think of sending another . 
in your room, for no man dieth by proxy ; or to think of compound- 
ing with death, as those self-deluded fools did (Isa. xxviii. 15) who 
thought that they had been discharged of the debt by seeing the ser- 
geant. No, no ! there is no discharge in that war. Flavel. 

The end of life to all men is death ; even though one should keep 
himself shut up in a cage, he cannot escape it. 

Demosthenes. 

(c) The glories of our birth and state 

Are shadows, not substantial things ; 
There is no armour against fate ; 
Death lays his icy hand on kings : 
Sceptre and crown 
Must tumble down, 
And in the dust be equal made 
With the poor crooked scythe and spade. 

Shirley. 
There's a lean fellow beats all conquerors. 

Decker. 
Whether you boast a monarch's birth, 

While wealth unbounded round you flows, 
Or poor, and sprung from vulgar earth, 
No pity for his victim Pluto knows. 

Horace. 



Skakspearian Parallels. 59 

Golden lads and girls all must, 

Like chimney-sweepers, come to dust. 

Cymbeline, Act iv., Scene 2 (Song). 

By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death 
Will seize the doctor too. 

Cymbeline, Act v., Scene 5. 

Your worm is your only emperor for diet : we 
fat all creatures else to fat us ; and we fat our- 
selves for maggots ; your fat king and your lean 



one table : that's the end. 

Hamlet, Act iv., Scene 3. 



XXVI. 
THE IMPORTANCE OF EARLY TRAINING. 

Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, 

he shall give delight unto thy soul. 1 

Prov. xxix. 17. 

Chasten thy son while there is hope. 

Prov. xix. 18. 

Train up a child in the way he should go s and 
when he is old, he will not depart from it. 2 

Prov. xxii. 6. 

1 Prov. xiii. 24, xxii. 15, xxiii. 13, xxix. 15. 

2 Deut. iv. 9, vi. 6, 7. » 



60 Bible Truths, with 

And ye fathers, provoke not your children to 
wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admo- 
nition of the Lord. 3 Eph. vi. 4. 



The canker galls the infants of the spring, 

Too oft before their buttons* be disclosed ; 

And in the morn and liquid dew of youth, 

Contagious blastments are most imminent ; 

Be wary, then, (a) 

Hamlet, Act 1., Scene 3. 



3 1 Chron. xxviii. 9. ; Prov. iv. 10 — 13. 
* Buds. 

(a) Be very vigilant over thy child in the April of his understand- 
ing, lest the frosts of May nip his blossoms. Wh.le he is a tender 
twig, straighten him ; whilst he is a new vessel, season him ; such 
as thou makest him, such commonly shalt thou find him. Let his 
first lesson be obedience, and his second shall be what thou wilt. 

Quarles. 

Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined. Pope. 

I, too, acknowledge the all but omnipotence of early culture and 
nurture ; hereby we have either a doddered, dwarf bush, or a high- 
towering, wide-spreading tree ! Carlyle. 

By nature we are very te.iacious of what we imbibe in the dawn 
of life, in the same manner as new vessels retain the flavour of what 
they first drink in. There is no recovering wool to its native white- 
ness after it is dyed. Now the more vicious a habit is, the closer it 
will stick ; for good habits are easily changed into bad ones ; but 
where did you ever know a vicious habit become a good one? Even 
a child, therefore, ought to be used to nothing in his infancy which 
he must afterwards he, at pains to unlearn. Quintiuan. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 6 

Tender youth is soon suggested. 

Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act in., Scene i. 

Now 'tis spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted ; 
Suffer them now, and they'll o'ergrow the garden, 
And choke the herbs for want of husbandry, {b) 
King Henry VI., 2nd Part, Act in., Scene 1. 



XXVII. 
ERROR ITS OWN CORRECTIVE. 

Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and 
thy backsliding shall reprove thee : know therefore 
and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou 
hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear 
is not in thee, saith the Lord. 1 Jer. ii. 19. 

Before I was afflicted I went astray : but now 
have I kept thy word. 2 Ps. cxix. 67. 



(/>) Mr. Thelwall (the patriot and orator in the French Revolution) 
contended it was unfair to influence a child by inculcating opinions 
before it was of age to choose for itself. I showed him what I 
called my botanical garden. "How so," said he; " it is covered 
with weeds." " That is only," I replied, " because it has not come 
to its year of choice, and therefore the weeds are growing. I 
thought it unfair to prejudice the soil in favour of roses and straw- 
berries." Coleridge. 
1 Prov. i. 30, 31. 2 Jer. xxxi. 18, 19. 



62 Bible Truths, with 

Behold therefore the goodness and severity of 
God. Rom. ix. 22. 

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in 
his youth. He putteth his mouth in the dust ; if 
so be there may be hope. Lam. iii. 27, 29. 

(Our fathers) for a few days chastened us after 
their own pleasure : but he for our profit, that we 
might be partakers of his holiness. 3 Heb. xii. 10. 

Therefore chastenest thou them by little and 
little that offend, and warnest them by putting 
them in remembrance wherein they have offended, 
that, leaving their wickedness, they may believe on 
thee, O Lord. Wisdom xii. 2. 

If they be bound in fetters, and be holden in 
cords of affliction ; then he sheweth them their 
work, and their transgressions that they have ex- 
ceeded. He openeth also their ear to discipline, 
and commandeth that they return from iniquity. 

Job xxxvi. 8 — 10. 

When thy judgments are in the earth, the in- 
habitants of the world will learn righteousness. 

Isa. xxvi. 9. 

3 Rom. v. 3, 4 ; John xv. 2 ; Isa. xxvii. 9. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 63 

His own iniquities shall take the wicked him- 
self, and he shall be holden with the cords of his 
cine Prov. v. 22. 



To wilful men, 
The injuries that they themselves procure 
Must be their schoolmasters, (a) 

King Lear, Act 11., Scene 4. 

They say best men are moulded out of faults, 
And, for the most, become much more the better 
For being a little bad. 

Measure for Measure, Act v., Scene 1. 

As surfeit is the father of much fast, 
So every scope by the immoderate use 
Turns to restraint. 

Measure for Measure, Act 1., Scene 3. 



(a) Error is cured by erring. Goethe. 

We must not let a poet say that those are miserable who are pun- 
ished, and that it is God who does these things. If they say, how- 
ever, that the wicked, as being miserable, need correction, — and 
that, in being punished, they are benefited by God, we may suffer 
the assertion. Plato. 

But let us not talk insincerely even for a good end, as we may 
suppose ; and therefore do not let us deny that every evil carries 
with it its teachings. Helps. 



t>4 Bible Truths, with 

You snatch some hence for little faults ; that's love, 
To make them fall no more : (b) you some permit 
To second ills with ills, each elder worse ; 
And make them dread it, t } the doer's thrift* 

Cymbeline, Act v., Scene I. 

Headstrong liberty is Iash'd with woe.f 

Comedy of Errors, Act il, Scene \. 

.God Almighty, 
There is some soul of goodness in things-evil, 
Would men observingly distil it out. 

King Henry V., Act iv., Scene i. 

I will turn diseases to commodity.]: 

King Henry IV '., 2nd Part, Act 1., Scene 2. 



(/>) The righteous perisheth, and no man Iayeth it to heart ; and 
merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is 
taken away from the evil to come. ISA. Ivii. I. 

* Profit. 

+ Shakspeare argues the need of such correction in the following 
passage : — 

If that the heavens do not their visible spirits 
Send quickly clown to tame these vile offences, 
'Twill come ; 

Humanity must perforce prey on itself, 
Like monsters of the deep. 

King Lear, Act iv., Scene 2. 

X "Advantage"— as, "It is good to set before vs the incom- 
modities and commodities of usury." Bacon. 



Skakspearia?i Parallels. 

In poison there is physic, (c) 

King HENRY IV., 2nd Part, Actl., See) 



XXVIII. 

THE ISSUE OF EVIL MUST BE EVIL. 

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men 
gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles P 1 

Matt. vii. 16. 

An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart 
bringeth forth that which is evil. 2 Luke yi. 45. 



By bad courses may be understood 

That their events can never turn out good. 

King Richard II., Act 11., Scene 1. 



(r) Rank poisons make good medicines. Error and misfortune 
may be turned into wisdom and improvement. 

Sydney Smith. 

You ought to remember your past sufferings, as slaves do their 
whipping, that you may refrain from the same faults. The pains of 
experience are useful to us, whether we will or no. 

Epictetus. 

He that is good, and lives after a principle of honour, will obey 
reason : but the bad man aims at pleasure, and is corrected by pain, 
like a beast. Aristotle. 

1 Gal. v. 19—21 ; Matt. xii. 34. 2 Isa. xxxii. 6. 

5 



66 Bible Truths, with • 

XXIX. 

SIN BREEDS SIN. 

/■* 

Shun profane and vain babblings, for they will 

increase unto more ungodliness. 2 Tim. ii. 16. 

Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and 

worse, deceiving and being deceived. 3 

2 Tim. iii. 13. 



One sin another doth provoke, (a) 

Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act 1., Scene 1. 



3 2 Thess. ii. II, 12. 

{a) The Pamonian bears, when ihey have clasped a dart in the 
region of their liver, weel themselves upon the wound, and, with 
anger and malicious revenge, strike the deadly barb deeper, and 
cannot be quit from their fatal steel, but in flying bear along that 
which themselves make the instrument of a more hasty death ; so 
is every vicious person struck with a deadly wound, and his own 
hands force it into the entertainments of the heart ; and because it 
is painful tp draw it' forth by a sharp and salutary repentance, he still 
rools and turns upon his wound, and carries his death in his bowels, 
where it first entered by choice, and then dwelt by love, and at last 
shall finish the tragedy of Divine judgments and an unalterable 
decree. Jeremy Taylor. - 

Oh, cursed, cursed sin ! traitor to God 
And ruiner of man ! mother of woe, 
And death, and hell ! wretched, yet seeking worse ; 
Polluted most, yet wallowing in the mire ; 
Most mad, yet drinking frenzy's giddy cup, 
Depth ever deepening, darkness darkening still. 

Pollok. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 67 

The cloy'd will 
(That satiate yet unsatisfied desire, 
That tub both fill'd and running) ravening first 
The lamb, longs after for the garbage, (b) 

Cymbeline, Act I., Scene 7. 

Sin will pluck on sin. (c) 

King Richard III., Act iv„ Scene 2. 



XXX. 

OUR FACULTIES TO BE MADE GOOD USE 
OF, AND NOT TO LIE UNUSED. 

Break up your fallow ground. Hosea x. 12. 



(/;) If God suffers men to go on in sins, and punishes them not, it 
is not a mercy, it is not a forbearance ; it is a hardening them, a 
consigning them to ruin and reprobation ; and themselves give the 
best argument to provi it, for they continue in their sin, they mul- 
tiply their iniquity, and every day grow more enemy to God ; and 
that is no mercy that increases .their hostility and enmity with God. 
A prosperous iniquity is the most unprosperous condition in the 
whole world. Jeremy Taylor. 

"Over shoes over boots" — a proverb which Bishop Sanderson 
declares to be the motto of some who, having advanced a certain 
way in sin, presently^become utterly reckless, caring not, and count- 
ing it wholly indifferent, how much farther in evil they advance. 

Trench. 

One crime must be concealed by another. Seneca. 

(c) An evil custom is a hook in the soul, and draws it whither the 
devil pleases. Jeremy Taylor. 



68 Bible Truths, with 

Let your light so shine before men that they 
may see your good works, and glorify your Father 
which is in heaven. 1 Matt. v. 16. 

Neglect not the gift that is in thee. 2 

i Tim. iv. 14. 

It is required in stewards that a man be found 
faithful. 1 Cor, iv. 2. 

Unto one he gave five talents, to another two, 
and to another one ; to every man according to his 
several ability. 3 * Matt. xxv. 15. 

For unto whomsoever much is given, of him 
shall be much required. Luke xii. 48. 



I would that you would make use of that good 
wisdom whereof I know you are fraught, {a) 

■ King Lear, Act 1., Scene ^ 



1 2 Cor. vi. 1. 2 Rom. xii. 6 ; i Cor. xii. 7, II. s i Peter iv. 10. 

* See also the remainder of the pai-able, to verse 30. 

(a) Wisdom that is hid, and treasure that is hoarded up, what 
profit is in them both ? Better is he that hideth his folly than a man 
that hideth his wisdom. Ecclus. xx. 30, 31. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 69 

The means that heaven yields must be embraced, 
And hot neglected.* 

- Kixg Richard II,, Act m., Scene 2. 

Our bodies are our gardens, to which our wills 
are gardeners ; so that, if we plant nettles or sow 
lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it 
with one gender of herbs or distract it with many ; 
either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured 
with industry ; why, the power and corrigible 
authority f of this lies in 'our wills, (b) 

Othello, Act 1., Scene 3. 

What is a man, 

If his chief good, and market of his time, 

Be but to sleep and feed ? a beast, no more. 

Sure He that made us with such large discourse 

Looking before and after, gave us not 

That capability and godlike reason 

To fust in us unused, (c) 

Hamlet, Act iv., Scene 4. 

* There is no more personal merit in a great intellect than in a great 
estate. It is the use which is made of the one and of the other which 
should found the claim to respect. 

f i.e., The right of correcting this. 

(b) A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds ; therefore let him 
seasonably water the one and destroy the other. Bacon. , 

(c) There is this analogy between the course of things in the natural 
and in the spiritual world, that as a limb which is never called into 
exercise loses its strength by degrees, its muscles and sinews disap- 
pearing — even so the gifts of God, unexercised, fade and fail from us. 
"From him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he 



70 Bible Truths, with 

Heaven doth with us as we with torches do : 

Not light them for themselves ; for if our virtues 

Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike 

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd 

But to fine issues ; nor nature never lends 

The smallest scruple of her excellence, 

But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines 

Herself the glory of a creditor, 

Both thanks and use. (d) 

Measure for Measure, Act i., Scene i. 



XXXI. 
THANKFULNESS. 

In everything give thanks ; for this is the will of 

God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 

i Thess. v. i 8. 



hath." And, on the other hand, as the limb is not wasted by strenu- 
ous exertion, but rather by it nerved and strengthened, so it is with 
the gifts of God ; they are multiplied by being laid out —a truth we 
recognize in our proverb, "Drawn wells are seldom dry ; " and thus, 
" Unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abund- 
ance." Trench. 

(it) It has been often observed how solemn a warning, and to how 
many, lies in the fact that he of the one talent (in the parable Matt, 
xxv. 14 — 30) is the defaulter, since to such an one an excuse like the 
following might easily occur : "So little is committed to my charge 
that it matters not how I administer that little ; at the best I cannot 
do much for God's glory; what signifies the little, whether it be done 
or left undone ? " But the Lord will teach us here that He expects, 
fidelity in little as in much. • Trench, 

1 Col. hi. 17 ; Ts. c. 4; Luke xii. 48. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 7 1 

Giving thanks always for all things unto God. 

Eph. v. 20. 



God's goodness hath been great to thee ; 
Let never day nor night unhallow'd pass, 
But still remember what the Lord hath done, (a) 
Kixg Henry VI., 2nd Part, Act 11., Scene 1. 

O Lord, that lends me life, 
Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness, (b) 
Kixg Henry VI., 3rd Part, Act 1., Scene 1. 

XXXII. 
READINESS FOR DEATH. 
The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the 
night. 1 2 Pet. iii. 10. 

((?) To th' infinitely good we owe 

Immortal thanks. Milton. 

I shall never be wanting in my acknowledgments to the gods ; and 
it even troubleth me that we cannot make a suitable return for the 
benefits they have conferred upon us. Zenophon. 

A wretched prisoner, chained to the floor for a length of time, 
would deem it a high privilege to be allowed to walk across the 
room. Another, confined to lie on his back till it had become sore, 
would think it a great favour if he might be permitted to turn on his 
side for a few minutes. In a course of habitual pain, I am thankful 
for five minutes' freedom from suffering. ' How forgetful have I been 
of fifty years of tolerable ease ! How unmindful are we of what we 
call common mercies I Cecil. 

(b) As gratitude is a necessary, and a glorious, so also is it as 
obvious, a cheap, and an easy virtue ; so obvious, that wherever 
there is life there is place for it. Seneca. 

: Matt. xxiv. 42, 43 ; I Tbess. v. 2, 3. 



72 Bible Truths, zvith 

Be ye therefore ready, for the Son of man cometh 
at an hour when ye think not. 2 Luke xii. 40. 

Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that 
watcheth. Rev. xvi. 15. 



I every day expect an embassage 

From my Redeemer to redeem me hence, (a) 

King Richard III., Act 11., Scene 1. 

Men must endure 
Their going hence, even as their coming hither ; 
Ripeness is all. (b) King Lear, Act v., Scene 2. 



2 Rev. iii. 3. 

(a) I might say much of the commodities that death can sell a man, 
but, briefly, death is a friend of ours, and he that is not ready to 
entertain him is not at home. Bacon. 

(6) 'Tis a vile thing to die 

When men are unprepared, and look not for it. 

King Richard III., Act in., Scene 2. 

Death exempts not a man from being, but only presents an alter- 
ation ; he is an importunate guest, and will not be said nay. And 
though they themselves shall affirm that they are not within, yet the 
answer will not be taken ; and that which heightens their fear is, 
that they know they are in danger to forfeit their flesh, but are not 
wise of the payment day ; which sickly uncertainty is the occasion 
that, for the most part, they step out of this world unfurnished for 
their general account, and being all unprovided, desire yet to hold 
their gravity, preparing their souls to answer in scarlet. 

Bacon. 

Death to a good man is but passing through a dark entry, out of 



Shakspcarian Parallels. 73 

XXXIII. 

SPIRITUAL LIFE. 

Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose 
it ; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve 
it. 1 Luke xvii. 33. 

For me to die is gain. 2 Phil. i. 21. 



To sue to live, I find I seek to die : 
And seeking- death find life. 

Measure for Measure, Act in., Scene 1. 

Death, at whose name I oft have been afeard, 
Because I wish'd this world's eternity. 

King Henry VI., Act 11., Scene 4. 

XXXIV. 
A SAVING SACRIFICE. 

If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, 
and cast them from thee ; it is better for thee to 



one little dusky room 'of his father's house, into another which is fair 
and large, lightsome and glorious, and divinely entertaining. Oh, 
may the rays and splendours of my heavenly apartment shoot far 
downward, and gild the dark entry with such a cheerful gleam as to 
banish every fear when I shall be called to pass through ! 

Watts. 
1 John xii. 25. 2 Rev. xiv. 13. 



74 Bible Truths, with 

enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having 
two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting 
fire. 1 Matt, xviii. 8. 

For it is profitable for thee that one of thy mem- 
bers should perish, and not that thy whole body 
should be cast into hell. Matt. v. 29. 



. This fester'd joint cut off, the rest, rest sound ; 
This, let alone, will all the rest confound. 

King Richard II., Aav. f Scene 3. 

XXXV. 

FAITHLESSNESS. 
Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, 
which did eat my bread, hath lifted up his heel 
against me. 2 Ps. xli. 9. 



Who should be trusted now, when one's right 
hand is perjured to the bosom ? (a) 

Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act v., Scene 4. 

1 Mark ix. 43, 44^ 47 ; Col. iii. 5 ; Rom. viii. 13. 

2 Ps. lv. 12, 13 ; 2 Sam. xv. 12 ; Obadiah 7 ; John xiii. 18. 

(a) Judge of your friends in/ the misfortunes of life, and ' their 
voluntary sharing of danger, for we prove gold by fire, but we know 
best our real friends in affliction and distress. Socrates. 

Blast not the hope which friendship has conceived, 
But fill its measure hierh. Hesiod. 



Skakspearian Parallels. 75 



XXXVI. 

LIVING FOR THE PRAISE OF MEN 
CENSURED. 

How can ye believe, which receive honour one of 
another, and seek not the honour that cometh from 
God only ? John v. 44. 

They loved the praise of men more than the 
praise of God. 1 John xii. 43. 

If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant 
of Christ. 2 Gal. i. 10. 

To have respect of persons is not good ; for, for 
a piece of bread that man will transgress. 

Prov. xxviii. 21. 



Glory grows guilty of detested crimes ; 

When for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part, 

We bend to that the working of the heart, (a) 

Love's Labour's Lost, Act iv., Scene 1. 



1 Rom. ii. 29 ; Heb. xi. 27. 2 James iv. 4. 

(a) This earthly world, where to do harm 

Is often laudable ; to do good, sometime, 
Accounted dangerous folly. 

Macbeth, Act iv., Scene 2. 
A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own 



76 Bible Truths, with 

Worse than the sun in March, 
This praise doth nourish agues, (b) 

King Henry IV., ist Part, Act IV., Scene i. 



XXXVII. 

USURY. 

Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother. 
Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury: but 
unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury. 1 

Deut. xxiii. 19, 20. 



heart : his next, to escape the censures of the world. If the last 
interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected. 

Addison. 
If ever you turn your attention to externals, so as to please any 
one, be assured you have ruined your scheme of life. 

Epictetus. 
\b) Flattery's the bellows blows up sin. 

Pericles, -Act 1., Seme 2. 
When all the world applauds you most, beware : 
Tis often less a blessing than a snare. 
Distrust mankind ; with your own heart confer ; 
And dread e'en there to find a flatterer. 

Young. 

Allow no man to be so familiar with you as to praise you to your 
face. Steele. 

Many praise you, but are you satisfied with yourself, if you are 
what they take you for and applaud ? Let your goodness be ap- 
proved by your own heart ! SENECA. 

1 Exod xxii. 25 ; Ps. xv. 5 ; Lev. xxv. 36, 37. 



Shakspcarian Parallels. yj 

When did friendship take 
A breed of barren metal from his friend ? 

Merchant of Venice, Act i., Scene 3. 



XXXVIII. 

FORGIVENESS. 

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your 
heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye 
forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your 
Father forgive your trespasses. Matt. vi. 14, 15. 

When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought 
against any ; that your Father also which is in 
heaven may forgive you your trespasses. 1 

Mark xi. 25. 

And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, 
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake 
hath forgiven you. Eph. iv. 32. 

For ye shall have judgment without mercy that 
hath shewed no mercy. 2 James ii. 13. 

Forbearing one another, and forgiving one an- 
other, if any man have a quarrel against any : even 
as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Col. iii. 13. 



1 Matt, xviii. 21, 22 ; Luke xvii. 4. 

2 Matt, xviii. 34, 35 ; Lev. xix. 18. 



78 Bible Truths, with 

Forgive thy neighbour the hurt that he hath 
done unto thee, so shall thy sins also be forgiven 
when thou prayest. One man beareth hatred 
against another, and doth he seek pardon from the 
Lord ? He sheweth no mercy to a man which 
is like himself, and doth he ask forgiveness of his 
own sins ? Ecclus. xxviii. 2—4. 



I pardon him as God shall pardon me. (a) 

King Richard II., A a v., Scene 3. 

The power that I have on you, is to spare you ; 
The malice towards you, to forgive you. 

Cymbeline, Act v., Scene 5. 

I as free forgive as I would be forgiven. 

King Henry VIII., Act 11. , Scene 1. 

How shalt thou hope for mercy, rendering none? (b) 
Merchant of Venice, Act iv.. Scene 1. 



(<7) He that cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which 
he must pass himself ; for every man has need to be forgiven. 

Lord Herbert. 

(b) Each man must take his choice. It is free to him to dwell in 
the kingdom of grace ; but then, receiving grace, he must show 
grace ; finding love, he must exercise love. If, on the contrary, he 
exacts the uttermost, pushes his rights as far as they will go, he 
must look to have the uttermost exacted from him, and in the mea- 
sure that he has meted, to have it measured back to him again. 

Trench. 

Phocian, after he had long served his country, being condemned to 



Shakspearian Parallels. ~c 

Ah, countrymen ! if when you make your prayers 
God should be as obdurate as yourselves, 
How would it fare with your immortal souls ? 

King Henry VI., 2nd Part, Act iv., Scene 8. 

Why dost not speak ? 
Think'st thou it honourable for a noble man 
Still to remember wrongs ? 

Coriolanus, Act v.. Scene 3. 



XXXIX. 

FREE WILL. 

See, I have set before thee this day life and 
good, and death and evil. I call heaven and earth 
to record this day against you, that I have set 
before you life and death, blessing and cursing : 
therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed 
may live. 1 Deut. xxx. 15, 19. 



death, was about to drink the poison in his dungeon, when those 
who were about him asked him if ha had anything to leave in charge 
to his son. " I command him," said he, " not to avenge upon the 
Athenians the injury they are now doing me." Whoever does not 
praise and admire this man would not, as I think, admire anything 
that is really great. /Elian. 

It is in vain for you to expect, it is impudent for you to ask, God's 
forgiveness on your own behalf, if you refuse to exercise this forgiving 
with respect to others. Hoadley. 

1 Deut. xi. 26 — 28. 



8o Bible Truths, with 

He hath set fire and water before thee, stretch 
forth thy hand unto whither thou wilt. 2 

Ecclus. XV. 1 6. 



Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, 
Which we ascribe to heaven ; the fated sky 
Gives us free scope ; (a) only doth backward pull 
Our slow designs, when we ourselves are dull. 
All's Well that Ends Well, Act I., Scene i. 



2 Jer. xxi. 8 ; Isa. i. 19, 20. 

(a) ' Good He made thee, but to persevere, 

He left it in thy power ; ordain 'd thy will, 
By nature free, not overruled by Fate 
Inextricable, or strict necessity. Milton. 

No man hath power over me : I am made free by God : I know 
His commandments, and no man can bring me under bondage. 

EpictetOs. 
There is good, and there is evil ; every man's destiny is in his 
own hands. Sydney Smith. 

It is a matter of fact that God governs the world by the method 
of rewards and punishments, and also that He has given us a moral 
faculty, by which we distinguish between actions, and approve some 
as virtuous and of good desert, and disapprove-others as vicious and 
of ill desert. Now, this moral discernment implies, in the notion of 
it, a rule of action, and a rule of a very peculiar kind, for it carries 
in it authority and a right of direction — authority in such a sense, as 
that we cannot depart from it without being self-condemned. 

Bishop Butler. 
O laws more ancient than laws ! O legislators more ancient than 
legislators ! to which he who submits himself is free ! 

Maximus Tyrius. 
Our voluntary service He requires 
Not one necessitated : such with Him 



Shakspearian Parallels. 8 

Men at some time are masters of their fates ; 
The fault is not in our stars, 
But in ourselves, (b) 

Julius Cesar, Act i., Scene 2. 

'Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. 

Othello, Act 1., Scene 3. 



Finds no acceptance, nor can find ; for how 
Can hearts not free be tried, whether they serve 
Willing or no, who will but what they must. 

Milton. 

Ingrate, he had of me 
All he could have ; I made him just and right, 
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall. 
Such I created all the ethereal powers 
And spirits, both them who stood and them who fail'd ; 
Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. 

Milton. 

{(>) This is the excellent foppery of the world ! that, when we are 
sick in fortune, (often the surfeit of our own behaviour,) we 'make 
guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars, as if we were 
villains by necessity ; fools by heavenly compulsion ; knaves, thieves, 
and teachers by spherical predominance ; drunkards, liars,' and 
adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and* all 
that we are evil in by a divine thrusting on. 

King Lear, Act 1., Scene 2. 

No wicked man is free. If you were to tell this to a man that has 
been twice consul, he will cry, How ! am I a slave ? My father was 
free, and my mother was free. It may be so, good sir, for they per- 
haps were generous and you are maan, they brave and you a coward, 
they sober and you dissolute. Epictetus. 

6 ■ 



Bible Truths, with 



XL. 



FRIENDS FORSAKING POVERTY AND 
ADVERSITY. 

Wealth maketh many friends ; but the poor is 
separated from his neighbour. All the brethren of 
the poor do hate him ; how much more do his 
friends go far from him ? he pursueth them with 
words, yet they are wanting to him. 

Prov. xix. 4 — 7. 

The poor is hated even of his own neighbour ; 
but the rich hath many friends. Prov. xiv. 20. 

My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my 
sore ; and my kinsmen stand afar off. 1 

Ps. xxxviii. 11. 

A poor man being down is thrust away by his 
friends. 2 Ecclus. xiii. 21. 



The great man down, you mark, his favourite 
flies. Hamlet, Act in., Scene 2. 



Job xix. 19 ; Ps. lv. 12, 13. 
Job vi. 15, 27 ; Obad. 4. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 83 

Where you are liberal of your loves and counsels, 
Be sure you be not loose ; for those you make 

your friends, 
And give your hearts to, when they once perceive 
The least rub in your fortunes, fall away 
Like water from ye, never found again 
But when they mean to sink ye. (a) 

King Henry VIII., Act 11., Scene 1. 

As we do turn our backs 
From our companion, thrown into his grave, 
So his familiars to his buried fortunes 
Slink all away ; leave their false vows with him 
Like empty purses pick'd ; and his poor self, 
A dedicated beggar to the air, 
With his disease of all shunn'd poverty, 
Walks, like contempt, alone, (b) 

Timon of Athens, Act iv., Scene 2. 

'Tis certain, greatness, once fallen out with fortune, 
Must fall out with men too ; what the declined is. 



{a) Treason is there in its most horrid shape, 

Where trust is greatest \ and the soul resign 'd 

Is stabb'd by her own guards. Dryden'. 

(/>) You'll find the friendship of the world a show ! 

Mere outward show ! 'Tis like the harlot's tears, 
The statesman's promise, or false patriot's zeal, 
Full of fair seeming, but delusion all. 

Savage. 

Gold is proved by fire ; and the day of necessity discovers the 
true friend. Menander. 



84 Bible Truths, with 

He shall as soon read in the eyes of others, 
As feel in his own fall ; for men, like butterflies, 
Show not their mealy wings but to the summer. 
Troilus and Cressida, Act in., Scene 3. 

That, sir, which serves and seeks for gain 

And follows but for form, 
Will pack when it begins to rain, 

And leave thee in the storm. 

King Lear, Act II., Scene 4.. 

When Fortune, in her shift and change of mood, 
Spurns down her late beloved, all his dependants, 
Which labour'd after him to the mountain's top, 
Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down, 
Not one accompanying his declining foot. 

Timon OF Athens, Act I., Scene 1. 

A poor sequester'd stag 
That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt, 
Did come to languish ; and indeed, my lord, 
The wretched animal heaved forth such groans, 
That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat 
Almost to bursting ; and the big round tears 
Coursed one another down his innocent nose 
In piteous chase. 

But what said Jacques ? 
Did he not moralise the spectacle ? 



Shakspcarian Parallels. 85 

Oh, yes, into a thousand similes — 
First, for his weeping in the needless stream : 
" Poor deer," quoth he, "thou mak'st a testament 
As worldings do, giving thy sum of more 
To that which had too much." Then being alone, 
Left and abandon'd of his velvet friends, 
" 'Tis right," quoth he ; " thus misery doth part 
The flux of company." Anon, a careless herd, 
Full of the pasture, jumps along by him, 
And never stays to greet him : " Ay," quoth 

Jacques, 
" Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens ; 
'Tis just the fashion ; wherefore do you look 
Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there ?" 

As You Like It, Act 11., Scene 1. 

Men shut their doors against a setting sun. 

Timon of Athens, Act 1., Scene 2. 

The swallow follows not summer more willingly, 

nor more willingly leaves winter : such summer 

birds are men. 

Timon of Athens, Act 11., Scene 6. 

Words are easy, like the wind ; 
Faithful friends are hard to find ; 
Every man will be thy friend 
Whilst thou hast wherewith to spend ; 
But if store of crowns be scant, 
No man will supply thy want. 



86 Bible Truths, ivith 

If that one be prodigal, 
Bountiful they will him call ; 
And with such like flattering, 
" Pity but he were a king." 
But if fortune once do frown, 
Then farewell his great renown ; 
They that fawn'd on him before 
Use his company no more, (c) 

Poems. 

Ah ! when the means are gone that buy this praise, 
The breath is gone whereof this praise is made ; 
Feast-worn, fast-lost ; one cloud of winter showers, 
These flies are couch'd. (d) 

Timon of Athens, Act il., Scene 2. 



XLL 

THE REBUKE OF A TRUE FRIEND 
INVALUABLE. 

Faithful are the wounds of a friend j 1 but the 
kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Prov. xxvii. 6. 

(c) Some man is a friend for his own occasion, and will not abide 
in the day of thy trouble. Ecclus. vi. 8. 

(d) Purchase not friends by gifts : when thou ceasestto give, such 
will cease to love. Fuller. 

Those blandishments of the world which are easily to be had for 
money, and which, when obtained, are as much worse than worth- 
less as a harlot's love is worse than none. Henry Taylor. 

1 Matt, xviii. 15. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 87 

Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. 

Prov. ix. 8. 

Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kind- 
ness ; and let him reprove me, it shall be an ex- 
cellent oil, which shall not break my head. 2 

Ps. cxli. 5. 



He tells me, that if, peradventure, 
He speak against me on the adverse side, 
I should not take it strange ; for 'tis a physic 
That's bitter to sweet end. (a) 

Measure for Measure, Act iv., Scene 6. 

(There is) no railing in a known discreet man, 
though he do nothing but reprove. 

Twelfth Night, Act 1., Scene 5. 



2 l'rov. xxv. 12 ; Gal. vi. I. 

(a) Thou mayest be sure that he who will in private tell thee of 
thy faults is thy friend, for he adventures thy dislike, and doth hazard 
thy hatred. Sir Walter Raleigh. 

I have no need of a friend who changes as I do, and follows me 
in everything, for my shadow can do that much better ; but of one 
who U'ill follow the truth, and judge according to it. 

Plutarch. 

Be content to hear good counsel, though it be contrary to thy will ; 
for he is a Very fool that will hear nothing glady but what is accord- 
ing to his mind. Dean Colet. 



88 Bible Truths, with 

Happy are they that hear their detractions, and 
can put them to mending, (b) 

Much Ado about Nothing, Act n., Scene 6. 



XLII. 
HONOUR. 

Render therefore to all their dues ; honour to 
whom honour. 1 Rom. xiii. 7. 



The due of honour in no point omit. 

Cymbeline. Act ill., Scene 5. 



{b) For there is no such flatterer as a man's self, and there is no 
such remedy against flattery of a man's self as the liberty of a friend. 
It is a strange thing to behold what gross errors and extreme absur- 
dities many (especially of the greater sort) do commit for want of a 
friend to tell of them, to the great damage both of their fame and 
fortune. Bacon. 

Aversion from reproof is not wise. This is a symptom of the 
disease. Why should he want this hushing-up of the disorder? 
This is a mark of a little mind. A great man can afford to lose ; 
a little insignificant fellow is afraid of being snuffed out. When the 
most insignificant person tells us we are wrong, we ought to listen. 
Let us believe it possible we may be wrong when any one supposes 
we are, and enter into the true littleness, which consists in receiving 
correction like a child. CECIL. 

1 Lev. xix. 32. 



Shakspcarian Parallels. 89 

XLIII. 

GENEROSITY TO THE POOR. 

When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, 
thou shalt not glean it afterward ; it shall be for 
the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widoAv. 1 * 

Deut. xxiv. 21. 



Shake the superfiux to them,f 
And show the heavens more just, (a) 

King Lear, Act in., Scene 4. 



1 Lev. xix. 10 ; Ps. xli. I. 

* For other laws granting privileges to the poor, see the follow- 
ing passages: — Usury forbidden to be taken from them (Exod. xxii. 
25 ; Lev. xxv. 26). Portions of tithes to be given them (Deut. xiv. 
29 xxvi. 12 ; Neh viii. 10). Their garments not to be retained as 
pledges after sunset (Deut. xxiv. 12, 13; Exod. xxii. 26, 27; Ezek. 
xviii. 7, 12 ; Amos ii. 8 ; Ezek. xxxiii. 15). A widow's raiment not 
to be taken to pledge (Deut. xxiv. 17), or a widow's ox (Job xxiv. 
3). Their privileges in the Sabbatical year and Jubilee (Exod. 
xxiii. 11 ; Lev. xxv. 25-28, 39, 40; Deut. xv. 9). Their treatment 
as servants (Deut. xxiv. 14, 15). 

f To the poor. 

{a) In conferring or requiting kindness, the chief rule of our duty 
ought to be, if all other circumstances are equal, to confer most 
upon the man who stands in greatest need, of assistance. The re- 
verse of this is practised by the generality, who direct their greatest 
services to the man from whom they hope the most, though he may 
stand in no need of them. Cicero. 



go Bible Truths, with 

We are born to do benefits. 

Timon of Athens, Act i., Scene 2. 

What is yours to bestow, is not yours to reserve. 
Twelfth Night, Act 1., Scene 5. 



XLIV. 

AN OVERRULING PROVIDENCE. 

A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord 
directeth his steps. 1 Prov. xvi. 9. 

O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in 
himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his 
steps. 2 Jer. x. 23. 

There are many devices in a man's heart f never- 
theless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand. 4 

Prov. xix. 21. 

The lot is cast into the lap ; but the whole dis- 
posing thereof is of the Lord, (a) Prov. xvi. 33. 



1 Ps. xxxvii. 23. 2 Ps. xvii. 4, 5. 3 Prov. xvi. 1. 

4 Isa. xlvi. 10; Ps. xxxiii. 11 ; Lam. iii. 37. 

(a) And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was 
sumamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed, and said, Thou, 
Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these 



Shakspearian Parallels. 9 

We are in God's hand. 

King Henry V. } Act in., Scene 6. 

There's a divinity that shapes our ends. 
Rough-hew them how we will, (b) 

Hamlet, Act v., Scene 2. 



two thou hast chosen. And they gave forth their lots ; and the lot 
fell upon Matthias ; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. 

Acts i. 23, 24, 26. 
Jove to all 
Disposes all things. 

Hesiod. 
Human wisdom knows no more how to choose the best than one 
who should determine to act as chance and the lot shall decide. 
The gods, who are eternal, know all things that have been, all 
things that are, and all things that shall happen, in consequence of 
everything ; and when men consult them, they signify to those to 
whom they are propitious what they ought to do, and what to leave 
undone. Zenophon. 

{/>) The history of Providence containeth that excellent corre- 
spondence which is between God's revealed will and His secret will, 
which, though it be so obscui'e as, for the most part, it is not legible 
to the natural man, — no, nor many times to those, who behold it 
from the tabernacle, — yet at some times it pleaseth God, for our 
better establishment, and the confuting of those which are as without 
God in the world, to write it in such text and capital letters that, as 
the prophet says, "He that runneth may read it," — that is, mere 
sensual persons, that hasten by God's judgments, and never bend or 
fix their cogitations upon them, are, nevertheless, in their passage 
and race, urged to decern it. Such are the notable events and 
examples of God's judgments, chastisements, deliverances, and 
blessings. Bacon. 

Mighty Jove cuts short, with just disdain, 
The long, long views of poor, designing man. 

Homer. 
There is a power 
Unseen that rules the illimitable world, 



J 
92 Bible Truths, with 

A greater power than we can contradict 
Hath thwarted our intents. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act v., Scene 3. 

Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our 
own. Hamlet, Act 111., Scene 2. 

Heaven has an end in all. 

King Henry VIII., Act 11., Scene 1. 



XLV. 

GOD'S GUIDANCE. 

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light 
unto my path. 1 Ps. cxix. 105. 



That guides its motions from the brightest star, 
To the least dust of this sin-tainted mould ; 
While man, who madly deems himself the lord 
Of all, is nought but weakness and dependence, 

Thomson. 
That power 
Which erring men call chance. 

Milton. 

It was a saying of Psammo, an Egyptian philosopher whom Alex- 
ander the Great went to hear, that all men are governed by God ; 
for in everything that which rules and governs is divine. 

Plutarch. 

1 Prov. vi. 23 ; Ps. xliii. 3. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 93 

God shall be my hope, 
My stay, my guide, and lantern to my feet. 

King Henry VI., 2nd Pari, Act 11., Scene 3. 



XLVI. 

THE FEAR OF GOD HONOURABLE. 

By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches 
and honour. 2 Prov. xxii. 4. 

Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. 3 

; Job xxviii. 28. 



And, to add greater honours to his age 
Than man could give him, he died fearing God. (a) 
King Henry VIII., Act iv., Scene 1. 



XLVII. 

THE WIDOW'S FRIEND. 

A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the 
widows, is God in his holy habitation.' 1 Ps Lwiii. 5. 



2 Deut. iv. 6. s Ps. cxi. 10 ; Eccles. xii. 13. 

(a) Reverence and fear the gods ; for this prevents - men either 
from doing or saying unholy things. THEOGNIS. 

4 Deut. x. 17, iS. 



94 Bible Truths, with 

Let thy widows trust in me. Jer. xlix. u. 

He relieveth the fatherless and widow. 1 

Ps. cxlvi. 9. 



Heaven, the widow's champion and defence. 
King Richard II., Act 1., Scene 



XLVIII. 

GOD'S MERCY TO US SHOULD TEACH 
US MERCY. 

Then his lord, after that he had called him, said 
unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee 
all that debt, because thou desirest me : shouldst 
not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow- 
servant, even as I had pity on thee ? And his 
lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, 
till he should pay all that was due him. 2 So like- 
wise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, 
if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his 
brother their trespasses. Matt, xviii. 32 — 35. 

Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 

Matt. vi. 12. 

1 Exod. xxii. 22, 23; James i. 27. 2 James ii. 13. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 95 

Then shall he say also unto them on the left 
hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting 
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels : for I 
was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat : I was 
thirst)-, and ye gave me no drink : I was a stranger, 
and ye took me not in : naked, and ye clothed 
me not : sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 
Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, 
when saw we an hungered, or athifst, or a stranger, 
or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister 
unto thee ? Then shall he answer them, saying, 
Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to 
one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And 
these shall go away into everlasting punishment. 1 

Matt. xxv. 41 — 46. 

Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, 
he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard. 2 

Prov. xxi. 13. 

With the merciful thou shalt shew thyself mer- 
ciful. 3 Ps. xviii. 25. 

Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is 
merciful/ Luke vi. 36. ■ 

1 Rom. ii. 5—9; Matt. iii. 12. a Ps. xli. I, 2. 

2 Luke vi. 38; 2 Cor. ix. 7 ; I John iii. 17. i Col. iii. 12. 



9 6 Bible Truths, with 

Consider this, — 
That, in the course of justice, none of us 
Should see salvation : we do pray for mercy ; 
And that same prayer doth teach us to render 
The deeds of mercy, (a) 

Merchant of Venice, Act iv., Scene i. 

As thou urgest justice, be assured 
Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desirest. 
Merchant of Venice, Act iv., Scene i. 

How would you be, 
If He, which is the top of judgment, should 
But judge you as you are ? Oh think on that, 
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,, 
Like man new made, (b) 

Measure for Measure, Act n., Scene 2. 



(a) He that shuts love out, in turn shall be 

Shut out from love, and on her threshold lie, 
Howling in outer darkness. Tennyson. 

Those who pray, ' ' Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them 
that trespass against us," and yet are implacable, pray to be damned. 

Jay. 
(d) The man who knows not his own guilt is ever ready to exclaim, 
as David in the time of his worst sin, ' ' The man that hath done 
this thing shall surely die," (2 Sam. xii. 5,) — to be as extreme in 
udging others as he is slack in judging himself; while, on the other 
hand, it is to them which are spiritual that St. Paul commits the 
restoring of a brother who has been " overtaken in a fault " (Gal. 
vi. 1) ; and when he urges on Titus the duty of being gentle, and 
showing meekness unto all men, he adds, " For we ourselves also 
were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts 



Shakspearian Parallels. 97 



XLIX. 

GOOD FOR EVIL. 

Say not thou, I will recompense evil. 1 

Prov. xx. 22. 

If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; 
and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink. 2 

Prov. xxv. 21. 

Say not, I will do to him as he hath done to me.' 

Prov. xxiv. 29. 

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with 
good. Rom. xii. 21. 

See that none render evil for evil unto any man : 
but ever follow that which is good, both among 
yourselves, and to all men. 1 Thess. v. 15. 

Not renderinsr evil for evil, or railing for railing: : 



and pleasures " (Tit. iii. 3). It \%just in man to be merciful ; to be 
humane is human. None but the altogether righteous may press 
his utmost rights ; whether he will do so or not is determined by 
altogether different considerations ; but he has not that to hold his 
hand which every man has, even the sense of his own proper guilt 
(John viii. 7—9). Trench. 

1 Deut. xxxii. 35 ; Heb. x. 30. 3 Rom. xii. 20. 

2 Matt. v. 38, 39. 

7 



98 i Bible Truths, with 

but contrariwise blessing ; knowing that ye are 
thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. 4 

i Pet. iii. 9. 

Love your enemies, do good to them which hate 
you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them 
which despitefully use you. 5 Luke vi. 27, 28. 



We must do good against evil. 

All's Well that Ends Well, Act 11., Scene 5. 

Cherish those hearts that hate thee. 

King Henry VIII., Act in., Scene 2. 

Kindness, nobler ever than revenge, (a) 

As You Like It, Act iv., Scene 3. 

4 Heb. xii. 3. 6 1 p e t. ii. 23. 

(a) A more glorious victory cannot be gained over another man 
than this, — that, when the injury began on his part, the kindness 
should begin on ours. TlLLOTSON. 

Pericles, when' a vile and abandoned fellow loaded him a whole 
day with reproaches and abuse, bore it with, patience and silence, 
and continued in public for the despatch of some urgent affairs. In 
the evening he walked slowly home, this impudent wretch following 
and insulting him all the way with the most scurrilous language. 
And as it was dark when he came to his own door, he ordered one 
of his servants to take a torch and light the man home. 

Plutarch. 

The last best fruit which comes to late perfection, even in the 
kindliest is, — Tenderness towards the hard, forbearance towards 
the unforbearing, warmth of heart towards the cold, philanthropy 
towards the misanthropic. KlCHTER. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 99 

The rarer action is 
In virtue, than in vengeance. 

The Tempest, Act v., Scene 1. 

To revenge is no valour, but to bear. 

Timon of Athens, Act in., Scene 3. 

A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion, — 
To. pray for them that have done scath to us. (b) 
King Richard III., Act 1., Scene 3. 



THE DANGERS OF WEALTH AND 
WORLDLY PROSPERITY. 

He also that received seed among the thorns is 
he that heareth the word ; and the care of this 
world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the 
word, and he becometh unfruitful. Matt. xiii. 22. 



(b) It is not right, therefore, to return an injury, or to do evil to 
any man, however one may have suffered from him. Plato. 

Great minds, like Heaven, are pleased in doing good 
Though the ungrateful subjects of their favours 
Are barren in return. Rowe. 

If any one affirms that it is just to give every one his due, and 
consequently thinks this within himself, that injury is due from a 
just man to his enemies, but service to friends, he was not wise who 
said so, for he spoke not the truth ; for in no case has the justice 
been proved of injuring any one at all. Plato. 



ioo Bible Truths, with 

What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole 
world, and lose his own soul ? Matt. xvi. 26. 

If riches increase, set not your heart upon them. 

Ps. lxii. 10. 

Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast 
built goodly houses, and dwelt therein ; and when 
thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver 
and thy gold is multiplied ; then thine heart be 
lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God. 1 

Deut. viii. 12 — 14. 

Men of the world, who have their portion in this 
life. Ps. xvii. 14. 

Spend their days in wealth. Therefore they say 
unto God, Depart from_us. Job xxi. 13, 14. 

The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and as 
an high wall is his own conceit. Prov. xviii. 11. 

In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. 

Ps. xxx. 6. 

The prosperity of fools shall destroy them. 

Prov. i. 32. 

Abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and 
the measure of thy covetousness. Jer. li. 13. 

1 Deut. xxxi. 20, xxxiii. 15. 



Shakspcaria?i Parallels. iof 

Lo, this is the man that made not God his 
strength ; but trusted in the abundance of his 
riches. Ps. Hi. 7. 

He gave their request ; but sent leanness into 
their soul. 1 Ps. cvi. 15. 

They that will be rich fall into temptation and a 
snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, 
which drown men in destruction and perdition. 
For the love of money is the root of all evil. 2 

1 Tim. vi. 9, 10. 



The path is smooth that leadeth unto danger, (a) 

Poems. 



1 Num. xi. 31 — 33. 2 Luke xvi. 13 ; 2 Tim. iv. 10. 

(a) For look, when we are best at ease, when all things go with 
us according to our will and pleasure, then we are commonly furthest 
from God. Latimer. 

It is the usual effect of prosperity, especially when felt on a 
sudden and beyond their hope, to puff up a people into insolence of 
manners. Men are much more expert at repelling adversity than 
preserving prosperity. Thucydides. 

Nothing is harder to govern than man when fortune smiles, nor 
anything more tractable than he when calamity lays her hands upon 
him. • , Plutarch. 

Mammon has two properties. — it makes us secure, first, when it 
goes well with us, and then we live without the fear of God at all ; 
secondly, when it goes ill with us, then we tempt God, fly from 
Him, and seek after another God. Luther. 

We pity the folly of the lark, which, while it playeth with the 



102 Bible Truths, with 

It is the bright day that bringeth forth the adder, 
And that craves wary walking. 

Julius Cesar, Act u., Scene i. 

Fat paunches have lean pates ; and dainty bits 
Make rich the ribs, but bankrout quite the wits, (b) 
Love's Labour's Lost, Act i., Scene i. 

Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds, (c) 

King Henry IV., 2nd Pari, Act iv., Scene 1. 



feather and stoopeth to the glass, is caught in the fowler's net ; and 
yet cannot see ourselves alike made fools by Satan, who, deluding 
us by the vain feathers and glasses of the world, suddenly enwrappeth 
us in his snares. Bishop Hall. 

(/>) By faring deliriously every day, men become senseless of the 
evils of mankind, inapprehensive of the troubles of their brethren, 
unconcerned in the changes of the world, and the cries of the poor, 
the hunger of the fatherless, and the thirst of the widow. 

Jeremy Taylor. 
(c) Whosoever shall look heedfully upon those who are eminent 
for their riches will not think their condition such as that he should 
hazard his quiet, and much less his virtue, to obtain it ; for all that 
great wealth generally gives above a moderate fortune is more room 
for the freaks of caprice, and more privilege for ignorance and vice, 
—a quicker succession of flatteries, and a larger circle of voluptuous- 
ness. Johnson. 
Whence shall these prodigies of vice be traced ? 
From wealth, my friend, 
Since Poverty, our better genius, fled, 
Vice, like a deluge, o'er the state has spread. 

Juvenal. 
'Tis rare, when riches cannot taint the mind, 
In Croesus' wealth a Numa's soul to find. 

Martial. 
Fortune's bounties are generally snares ; we think we take, but 
are taken. Seneca. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 103 

The profit of excess 

Is but to surfeit, and such griefs sustain, 

That they prove bankrupt in this poor-rich gain. 

The aim of all is but to nurse the life 

With honour, wealth, and ease, in waning age ; 

And in this aim there is such thwarting strife, 

That one for all, or all for one, we gage, 

As life for honour in fell battle's rage, 

Honour for wealth ; and oft that wealth doth cost 

The death of all, and altogether lost, id) 

Poems. 



LI. 

UNIVERSALITY OF GUILT. 
In many things we offend all. Jas. Hi. 2. 



(d) Good success 

Is oft more fatal far than bad ; one winning throw, 
Cast from a flattering die, tempting the gamester 
To hazard his whole fortunes. Chapman. 

Why the prosperity of fools proves destructive to them is, because 
prosperity has a peculiar force to abate men's virtues, and to 
heighten their corruptions. Prosperity and ease upon an unsanc- 
tified, impure heart is like the sunbeams upon a dunghill ; it raises 
many filthy and noisome exhalations. The same soldiers who in hard 
service and in the battle are in perfect subjection to their leaders, 
in peace and luxury are apt to mutiny and rebel. That corrupt 
affection which has lain, as it were, dead and frozen in the midst 
of distracting businesses or under adversity, when the sun of 
prosperity shined upon it, then like a snake it presently recovers 
its former strength and venom. South. 



104 Bible Trtitks, with 

There is no man which sinneth not 1 

2 Chron. vi. 36. 

For there is not a just man upon the earth, that 
doeth good, and sinneth not. 2 Eccles. vii. 20. 

If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, 
who shall stand ? Ps. cxxx. 3. 

Who can say,, I have made my heart clean, I am 
pure from my sin ? 3 Prov. xx. 9. 



We' are sinners all. 

King Henry VI., 2nd Part, Act in., Scene 3. 

Who has a heart so pure, 
But some uncleanly apprehensions 
Keeps leets and lawdays, and in session sit 
With meditations lawful. 

Othello, Act 111., Scene 3. 

Use every man after his. desert, and who shall 
'scape whipping. Hamlet, Act 11., Scene 2. 

Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud ; 
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun ; 
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud ; 
All men make faults. Poems. 

1 1 Kings viii. 46. 2 Rom. iii. 23. 3 1 John i. 8. 



Shakspecu'ian Parallels. 105 

Nobody but has his fault, (a) 

Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 1., Scene 4. 

Many a thousand of us 
Have the disease, and feel't not. 

Winter's Tale, Act 1., Scene 2. 

Where's that palace whereinto foul things 
Sometime intrude not ? 

Othello, Act in., Scene 3. 

No perfection is so absolute 
That some impurity doth not pollute. 

Poems. 



LII. 

GOD'S FAVOURS EQUALLY 
DISTRIBUTED. 

God is no respecter of persons. 1 acts x. 34. 

(He) accepteth not the persons of princes, nor 



(a) I cannot see any mortal alive who goeth through life without 
committing some offence. Xenophon. 

I shall never, searching for that which cannot be, throw away a 
portion of my life on an empty, impracticable hope, — ^searching for 
an all-blameless man among us, who feeds on the fruits of the wide 
earth. When I have found one I will inform you. Plato. 

1 Gal. ii. 6 ; Rom. ii. n. 



io6 Bible Truths, with 

regardeth the rich more than the poor, for they are 
all the work of his hands. Job xxxiv. 19. 

The profit of the earth is for all ; the king him- 
self is served by the field. Eccles. v. 9. 



The king is but a man as I am ; the violet smells 
to him as it doth to me ; the element shows 
to him as it doth to me ; all his senses have but 
human conditions ; his ceremonies laid by, in his 
nakedness he appears but a man. (a) 

King Henry V., Act iv., Scene r. 

Princes have but their titles for their glories, 
An outward honour for an inward toil ; 
- And, for unfelt imaginations, 
They often feel a world of restless cares ; 



(a) Some are and must be greater than the rest, 

More rich, more wise ; but who infers from hence 
That such are happier, shocks all common sense. 

Pope. 

Good and ill are universally intermingled, happiness and misery, 
wisdom and folly, virtue and vice. Nothing is pure, and entirely 
of a piece. All advantages are attended with disadvantages. A 
universal compensation prevails in all conditions of being and exist- 
ence ; and it is scarce possible for us, by our most chimerical wishes, 
to form the idea of a station or situation altogether desirable. The 
draughts of life, according to the poet's fiction, are always mixed 
from vessels on each hand of Jupiter. Hume. 



SJiakspcarian Parallels. 107 

So that, between their titles and low name, 
There's nothing differs but the outward fame, (b) 
King Richard III., Act 1., Scene 4. 

The gods sent not 
Corn to the rich men only. 

Coriolanus, Act 1., Scene 1. 

Once or twice 
I was about to speak, and tell him plainly 
The selfsame sun that shines upon his court 
Hides not his visage from our cottage, but 
Looks on all alike, (c) 

Winter's Tale, Act iv., Scene 3. 



(b) Thinkest thou that the men of this world are exempt from 
.suffering, or have but an inconsiderable portion? Thou wilt not 
find it thus, though thou searchest among the most prosperous and 
the most luxurious ! Even while they live, the enjoyment of what 
they have is embittered by the want of what they have not, — is 
either made tasteless by satiety, or disturbed by fear ; and that from 
which they expected to derive pleasure and joy becomes the source 
of pain and sorrow. Thomas A'Kempis. 

Heaven to mankind impartial we confess, 

If all are equal in their happiness ; 

But mutual wants this happiness increase ; 

All nature's difference keeps all nature's peace. 

Condition, circumstance, is not the thing : 

Bliss is the same in subject or in king. 

Heaven breathes through every member of the whole, 

One common blessing, as one common soul. Pope. 

(c) Nature hates monopolies and exceptions. The waves of the 
sea do not more speedily seek a level from their loftiest tossing than 
the varieties of condition tend to equalize themselves. There is 



1 08 • Bible Truths, with 

LIII. 

THE SAFETY OF A MIDDLE STATE. 

Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me 
with food convenient for me. 1 Prov. xxx. 8. 

Godliness with contentment is great gain. For 
we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain 
we can carry nothing out. And having food and 
raiment, let us be therewith content. 2 

1 Tim. vi. 6—8. 



They are as sick that surfeit with too much, as 
they that starve with nothing. It is no mean hap- 
piness, therefore, to be seated in the mean, (a) 

Merchant of Venice, Act 1., Scene 2. 



always some levelling circumstance that puts down the overbearing, 
the strong, the rich, the fortunate, substantially on the same ground 
with all others. Emerson. 

Think ye that sic as you and I 
Wha drudge and drive through wet and dry, 

Wi' never-ceasing toil, — 
Think ye are we less blest than they 
Wha scarcely tent us in their way, 

As hardly worth their while ? 

Burns. 

1 Heb. xiii. 5 ; Deut. xxxii. 15 ; James iv. 3. 

2 Prov. xv. 16 ; Ps. xxxvii. 16 ; Gen. xxviii. 20 — 22. 

{a) All things considered, he that can cut even est, between want 



Shaksptarian Parallels. icg 

Happy in that we are not over-happy ; 

On fortune's cap we are not the very button. 

Hamlet, Act II., Scene 2. 

Full oft 'tis seen 
Our mean* secures us ; and our mere defects 
Prove our commodities. 

King Lear, Act iv., Scene 1. 

His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him ; 
For then, and not till then, he felt himself, 
And found the blessedness of being little. 

King Henry VIII., Act iv., Scene 1. 



and excess, is in the safest, easiest, happiest state — a truth which, if 
it were duly entertained, would quit men's hearts of a world of vexa- 
tion, which now they do willingly draw upon themselves ; for he that 
resolves to be rich and great, as he must needs fall into many snares 
of sin, so into manifold distractions of cares. It was a true word of 
wise Bion in Laertius, who, when he was asked what man lived 
most unquietly, answered, He that in a great estate affects to be 
prosperous. In all experience, he that sets too high a pitch to his 
desires lives upon the rack ; neither can be loosed till he remit of 
his great thoughts, and resolve to clip his wings and train, and to 
take up with the present. Bishop Hall. 

If I might choose my own lot, I would spread my sails to the 
gentle west winds, nor should my masts tremble under heavy gales. 
A soft and moderate breeze should waft my bark gently along the 
middle course of life. Seneca. 

O fools, they know not in their selfish soul 
How far the half is better than the whole. 

Hesiod. 
* (/. e.) Our mediocrity. 



no Bible Truths, with 

LIV. 

THE CORRUPTION OF HUMAN NATURE. 

The heart is deceitful above all things, and des- 
perately wicked j 1 who can know it ? (a) 

Jer. xvii. g. 

God saw the wickedness of man was great in 
the earth, and that every imagination of the 
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 2 

Gen. vi. 5. 

The heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and 
madness is in their heart while they live. 3 

Eccles. ix. 3. 

The imagination of man's heart is evil from his 
youth. 4 Gen. viii. 21. 



Who lives, that's not 
Depraved, or depraves ? 

Timon of Athens, Act 11., Scene 1. 

1 Matt. xv. 19. 

{a) Who can tell a*& the windings and turnings, all the depths, all 
the hollowness and dark corners of the mind of man.' It is a wilder- 
ness, in which a man may wander more than forty years ; a wilderness 
through which few have passed to the promised land, 

South.*; 

2 Job xv. 14. 3 Ps. li. 5. 4 Job xiv. 4; James i. 14. 



Sliakspearian Parallels. 1 1 

All is oblique ; 
There's nothing level in our cursed natures, 
But direct villany. (b) 

Timon of Athens, Act iv., Scene 3. 

We are arrant knaves all. 

Hamlet, Act in., Scene 1. 

O mischief! thou art swift 
To enter in the thoughts of desperate men. (c) 
Romeo and Juliet, Act v., Scene 1. 

We all are men, 
In our own natures frail ; and capable 
Of our flesh, (d) 

King Henry VIII., Act v., Scene 2. 



(b) All men are intrinsical rascals. Byron. 
Man is naturally deceitful ever, in every way. 

Aristophanes. 
Every heart, when sifted well, 

Is a clot of warmer dust 
Mix'd with cunning sparks of hell. 

Tennyson. 
Oh the infinite avarice and ambition of men ! the, sea hath both 
bottom and bounds, the heart of man hath neither. 

Bishop Hall. 

(c) Feet that be swift in running to mischief. Prov. vi. iS. 
Their feet are swift to shed blood. Rom. iii. 15. 

(d) How potent are the infirmities of the flesh and blood ! How 
weak is nature's strength ! how strong her weakness ! How is 
my easy faith abused by my deceitful sense ! How is my under- 



H2 Bible Truths, with 

God amend us, God amend ! we are much out o' 

the way. (a) 

Love's Labour's Lost, Act iv., Scene 3. 



LV. 

a vp:ry little with love is good 

CHEER. 

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a 
stalled ox and hatred therewith. 1 (b) Prov. xv. 17. 



Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast. 
Comedy of Errors, Act in., Scene 1. 



standing blinded with deluding error ! How is my will perverted 
with apparent good ! If real good present itself, how purblind is 
mine eye to view it ! if viewed, how dull is my understanding to 
apprehend it ! if apprehended, how heartless is my judgment to 
allow it ! if allowed, how unwilling is my will to choose it ! if chosen, 
how fickle are my resolutions to retain it. Quarles. • 

(a) We have a corrupt nature, and a body of infirmity, and our 
reason dwells in the dark, and we must go out of the world before 
we leave our sin. . Jeremy Taylor. 

God's plan of saving men is based on the fact that the race is by 
nature destitute of holiness. Barnes. 

Eccles. iv. 6, v. 12. 

(b) Does he not drink more sweetly that takes his beverage in an 
earth em vessel than he that looks and searches into his golden 
chalices for fear of poison, and looks pale at every sudden noise, and 
sleeps in armour, and trusts -nobody, and does not trust God for his 
safety ? Jeremy Taylor. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 1 1 3 

LVI. 

HUMILITY. 

When ye shall have done all those things which 
are commanded you, say ye are unprofitable ser- 
vants. 1 Luke xvii. 10. 

Behold, I am vile ; what shall I answer thee ? I 
will lay mine hand upon my mouth. 2 Job xl. 4. 

We are all as an unclean thing, and our righteous- 
nesses are as filthy rags. 3 Isa. lxiv. 6. 



More willT do ; 
Though all that I can do is nothing worth, 
Since that my penitence comes after all, 
Imploring pardon. 

King Henry V., Act iv., Scene 1. 

Let me be ignorant and in nothing good, 
But graciously to know I am no better, (a) 

Measure for Measure, Act 11., Scene 4. 

1 Gen. xxxii. 10. 

2 Ps. li. 3 — 5 ; Ezra ix. 6 ; Dan. ix. 5 — 8 ; Neh. ix. 33. 

3 Rom. iii. 27 ; Ps. cxliii. 2. 

{a) Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop 

Than when we soar. Wordsworth. 

The wisest man is generally he who thinks himself the least so. 

Boilealt. 



1 1 4 Bible Truths, with 

Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride ; 
Giving full trophy, signal, and ostent, 
Quite from himself, to God * (b) 

King Henry V., Act v., Scene r. 

It is the witness still of excellency, 
To put a strange face on his own perfection, (c) 
Much Ado About Nothing, Act 11., Scene 3. 

* What hast thou that thou didst not receive ? I COR. iv. 7. 
It is presumption in us, when. 
The help of Heaven we count the act of man. 

All's Well that Ends Well, Act 11., Scene 1. 

(b) Highest when it stoops 
Lowest before the holy throne. 

POLLOK. 

Humility, that low, sweet root, 
From which all heavenly virtues shoot. 

Moore. 

(c) The greatest men whom I have known, men v. hose glance em- 
braced the heavens and the earth, were very humble. 

Goethe. 
The loaded bee the lowest flies ; 
The richest pearl the deepest lies ; 
The stalk the most replenished 
Doth bow the most its modest head. 
Thus deep humility we find 
The mark of every master-mind ; 
The highest-gifted lowliest bends, 
And merit meekest condescends, 
And shuns the fame that fools adore, 
That puff that bids the feather soar. 

Cotton, 

The other appendage to her religion, which also was a great orna- 
ment to all the parts of her life, was a rare modesty and humility 
of spirit, a confident despising and under-valuing of herself. For 



Skakspearian Parallels. i 15 

LVII. 

IDLENESS LEADS TO POVERTY. 

Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty. 1 (a) 

PROV. xx. 13. 

Drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. 

Prov. xxiii. 21. 

though she had the greatest judgment, and the greatest experience 
of things and persons, that I ever yet knew in a person of her youth, 
and sex, and circumstances, yet, as if 'she knew nothing of it, she 
had the meanest opinion of herself ; and like a fair taper, when she 
shined to all the room, yet round about her own station she had cast 
a shadow and a cloud, and she shined to everybody but herself. 

Jeremy Taylor (sermon on the death of Lady Carbery). 
1 Prov. xxiv. 33, 34. 

[a) Idleness travels very slowly, and poverty soon overtakes her. 

Hunter. 
At the working man's house, hunger looks in, but does not enter ; 
nor will the bailiff or the constable enter ; for industry pays debts. 

Franklin. 
Labour evermore, 
That hunger turn abhorrent from thy door ; 
Still on the sluggard hungry want attends, 
The scorn of man, the hate of heaven impends. 

Hesiod. 

By our transgression and fall the necessity of industry (together 
with a difficulty of obtaining good and avoiding evil) was increased 
to us, being ordained both as a just punishment of our offences, and ' 
as an expedient remedy of our needs. Accordingly, our condition 
and circumstances in the world are so ordered as to require industry ; 
whence St. Paul's charge upon the Thessalonians, that if any one 
would not work neither should he eat, is in a manner a general law 
imposed on mankind by the exigency of our state. Barrow. 

How can things go on well without labour ? Plautus. 



1 1 6 Bible 1 ruths, ivilh 

The sluggard will not -plough by reason of the 
cold ; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have 
nothing. 2 Prov. xx. 4. 

He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack 
hand. Prov. x. 4. 



Delay leads impotent and snail-paced beggary. 
King Richard III., Act iv., Scene 3. 

In delay there lies no plenty. 

Twelfth Night, Act 11., Scene 3. 



LVIII. 

NO PLEASURE IN LIFE WITHOUT 
OCCUPATION AND ACTIVITY. 

The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth 
his own flesh, (a) Eccles. iv. 5. 



2 Matt. xxv. 3 — 9 ; xxv. 26 — 30. 

(a) A millstone and the human heart are driven' ever round ; 

If they have nothing else to grind, they must themselves be 
ground. Longfellow {from the German). 

Absence of occupation is not rest, 
' A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd. 

COWPER. 

An idle dog will be mangy, and how shall an idle person think to 
escape ? Idleness of the mind is much worse than this of the body ; 



Shakspearian Parallels. 1 1 

The slothful shall be under tribute. 

Prov. xii. 24. 

The desire of the slothful killeth him. 

Prov. xxi. 25. 



What pleasure find we in life, to lock it 
From action and adventure ? 

Cymbeline, Act iv., Scene 4. 

If all the year were playing holidays, 
To sport would be as tedious as to work : (b) 
But when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come. 
King Henry IV., 1st Part, Act 1., Scene 2. 



wit without employment is a disease ; the rust of the soul, a plague, 
a hell itself. This body of ours, when it is idle and knows not how 
to bestow itself, macerates and vexes, itself with cares, griefs, false 
fears, discontents, and suspicions ; it tortures and preys upon its own 
bowels, and is never at rest. Burton. 

A certain degree of labour and exertion seems to have been 
allotted us by Providence, as the condition of humanity. " In the 
sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread ; " this is a curse which 
has proved a blessing in disguise. And those favoured few who by 
their rank or their riches are exempted from all exertion, have no 
reason to be thankful for the privilege. Colton. 

(l>) Happy, ye sons of busy life, 

Who, equal to the bustling strife, 

No other view regard ! 
Even when the wished end's denied, 
Yet while the busy means are plied, 

They bring their own reward ; 



1 1 8 Bible Truths, with ' 

Service shall with, steeled sinews toil 
And labour shall refresh itself with hope. 

King Henry V., Act n., Scene 2. 

There be some sports, are painful; but their labour 
Delight in them sets off. 

The Tempest, Act in., Scene 1. 

Whilst I, a hope-abandon'd wight, 

Unfitted with an aim, 
Meet every sad. returning night 
And joyless morn the same : 
You bustling and justling, 

Forget each grief and pain, y, 
I listless, and restless, 
Find every prospect vain. 

Burns. 
Idlers cannot even find time to. be idle, ox the industrious to be at 
leisure. We must always be doing or suffering. 

Zimmerman. 
And heard the. everlasting yawn confess 
The pains and penalties of idleness. 

Pope. i 

Of those who time so ill support, 

The calculation's wrong ; 
Else why is life accounted shorty 

When days appear so long ? 
By actions 'tis we life enjoy ; 

In idleness we're dead : 
The soul's a fire will self-destroy* 

If not with fuel fed. Voltaire. 

Leisure is pain ; takes off our chariot wheels :. 
How heavily we drag the load of life ! 
Blest leisure is our curse ; like that of Cain, 
It makes us wander : wander earth around 
To fly that tyiunt thought. As Atlas groan'd 
The world benealh, we groan beneath an hour. 

Young.. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 1 1 9 

The labour we delight in physics pain, (c) 

Macbeth, Act 11., Scene 3. 

Things won are done ; joy s soul lies in the doing, (a 7 ) 
Troilus and Cressida, Act L, Scene 2. 

(c) Nature hath assign'd 

Two sovereign remedies for human grief: 
Religion, sweetest, firmest, first, and best, 
Strength to the weak, and to the wounded balm ; 
And strenuous action next. Southey. 

If life be heavy on your hands, 

Are there no beggars at your gate, 
Nor any poor about your lands ? 

Oh, teach the orphan boy to read ; 
Or teach the orphan girl to sew ; 

Pray Heaven for a human heart, 
And let your selfish sorrow go. 

Tennyson. 
Employment is nature's physician, and is essential to human 
happiness. Gaten. 

O mortal man, who livest here by toil, 
Do not complain of this thy hard estate ; 
That, like an emmet, thou must ever moil, 
Is a sad sentence of an ancient date : 
And, certes, there is reason for'it great. 
For, though sometimes it makes thee weep and wail, 
And curse thy star, and early drudge and late ; 
Withouten that would come an heavier bale, 
Loose life, unruly passions, and diseases pale. 

Thomson. 
(//) It is the battle, not the prize, 

That fills the hero's breast with joy, 
And industry the bliss supplies 
Which mere possession might destroy. 

Lord Houghton. 

Sweet is the destiny of all trades, whether of the brows or of the 
mind. God never allowed any man to do nothing. How miserable 



120 Bible Truths, with 

LIX. 
INDUSTRY INCULCATED. 

Go to the ant, thou sluggard ; consider her ways, 
and be wise ; which having no guide, overseer, or 
ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and 
gathereth her food in the harvest. 1 Prov. vi. 6—8. 



We'll set thee to school to an ant. (a) 

King Lear, Act II., Scene 4. 



is the condition of those men which spend the time as if it were 
given them, and not lent ; as if hours were waste creatures, and such 
as never should be accounted for. Bishop Hall. 

Manufactures, trade, and agriculture naturally employ more than 
nineteen parts of the species in twenty ; and as for those who are 
not obliged to labour, by the condition in which they are born, they, 
are more miserable than the rest of mankind, unless they indulge 
themselves in that voluntary labour which goes by the name of 
exercise. Addison. 

1 Job xii. 7, xxxv. 11. 

(a) This quality of perseverance in ants on one occasion led to 
very important results, which affected a large portion of this habit- 
able globe ; for the celebrated conqueror Timour, being once forced 
to take shelter from his enemies in a ruined building, where he sat 
alone many hours desirous of diverting his mind from his hopeless 
condition, he fixed his observation upon an ant that was carrying a 
grain of corn larger than itself up a high wall. Numbering the 
efforts that it made to accomplish this object, he found that the 
grain fell sixty-nine times to the ground, but the seventieth time it 
reached the top of the wall. "This sight," said Timour, "gave 



Shakspearian Parallels. 1 2 1 



LX. 

INDUSTRY THE ROAD TO WEALTH 
AND HONOUR. 

The hand of the diligent maketh rich. 1 

Prov. x. 4. 

Seest thou a man diligent in his business ? he 
shall stand before kings. Prov. xxii. 29. 



Shortly his fortune shall be lifted higher, 
True industry doth kindle honour's fire, (a) 

Poems. 



me courage at the moment ; and I have never forgotten the lesson 
it conveyed." Kirby and Spence. 

Ants have a political community among themselves, and are pos- 
sessed of both memory and foresight. Pliny. 
Taught by the ant, 
Men sometimes guard against the extreme of want ; 
And stretch, though late their providential fears, 
To food and raiment for their future years. 

Juvenal. 
The little ant (to human lore 
No mean example) forms the frugal store, 
Gather'd with mighty toil on every side, 
Not ignorant nor careless to provide 
For future want. Horace. 

1 Prov. xiii. II, xxi. 5. 
(a) In fine, if we are conscientiously industrious in our vocation, 



122 Bible Truths, with 

LXI. 

THE PRESENT TIME ONLY OURS. 

Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come 
upon you ; for he that walketh in darkness knoweth 
not whither he goeth. John xii. 35. 

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with 
thy might ; for there is no work, nor device, nor 
knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou 
goest. Eccles. ix. 10. 

we shall assuredly find the blessing of God thereon ; and that He 
thereby will convey good success, comfort, competent wealth, a fair 
reputation, all desirable good unto us : for as all these things are 
promised to industry, so the promise especially doth belong to that 
industry which a man doth exercise in an orderly course of action in 
his own way ; or rather in God's way wherein Divine Providence 
hath set him. Barrow. 

The wise governors of the universe have decreed that nothing 
great, nothing excellent, shall be obtained without care and labour. 
They give no real good, no true happiness, on other terms. If then 
you wish for the fruits of the earth, cultivate it ; if for the increase 
of your flocks and herds, let your flocks and herds have your atten- 
tion and care. Xenophon. 
Industry, 
To meditate, to plan,, resolve, perform, 
Which is itself a good — as surely brings 
Reward of good, no matter what be done. 

POLLOK. 

Industry is the philosopher's ■ stone that turns all metals and even 
stones to gold. It is the north-west passage, that brings the mer- 
chant's ships as soon to him as he can desire. In a word, it conquers 
all enemies, and makes fortune itself pay tribute. 

Clarendon. - 
Isa. lv. 6. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 123 

Go to now, ye that say, to-day, or to-morrow, 
we will go into such a city, and continue there a 
year, and buy and sell, and get gain ; whereas ye 
know not what shall be on the morrow : (a) for 
what is your life ? It is even a vapour, that ap- 
peareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 

Jas. iv. 13, 14. 

Boast not thyself of to-morrow : for thou knowest 
not what a day may bring forth. 2 Prov. xxvii. 1. 

Give glory to the Lord your God, before he 
cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon 
the dark mountains, and while ye look for light, he 
turn it into the shadow of death,, and make it gross 
darkness. Jer. xiii. 16. 

The night cometh when no man can work. 

John ix. 4. 



(a) In human hearts what bolder thought can rise 

Than man's presumption on to-morrow's dawn? 
Where is to-morrow ? In another world. 
For numbers this is certain ; the reverse 
Is sure to none ; and yet» on this " perhaps, " 
This ' ' perad venture, " infamous for lies, 
As on a rock of adamant we build 
Our mountain hopes ; spin out eternal schemes, 
As we the fatal sisters could outspin, 
And big with life's futurities, expire. 

Young. 

2 Isa. Ivi. 12 ; Luke xii. 19 — 21, 



124 Bible Truths, with 

When the day serves before black-corner'd night, 
Find what thou want'st- by free and offer'd light. 
Timon of Athens, Act v., Scene i. 

Let's take the instant by the forward top ; 
For we are old, and on our quick'st decrees 
The inaudible and noiseless foot of time 
Steals ere we can effect them, (b) 

All's Well that Ends Well, Act v., Scene 3. 

We must take the current while it serves, (c) 

Julius Cesar, Act iv., Scene 3. 

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, 
Creeps in this petty pace,«from day to day, 
To the last syllable of recorded time : 
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
The way to dusty death, (d) 

MacbEth, Act v., Scene 5. 

(b) I, who squandered whole days heretofore, now husband hours, 
when the glass runs low, and care not to misspend them on trifles. 
At the end of our life, our last minutes, like tickets left in the wheel, 
rise in our valuation. They are not so much worth, perhaps, in 
themselves, as those which preceded, but we are apt to prize them 
more, and with reason. Bishop Atterbury. 

(c) There is no greater impediment of action than an over-curious 
observance of decency, which is time and season. For, as Solomon 
says, ' ' He that observeth the wind shall not sow ; and he that re- 
gardeth the clouds shall not reap." A man must make his oppor- 

unity, as oft as find it. Bacon. 

(d) To-morrow didst thou say ? 
Go to- —I will not hear of it — To-morrow ! 



Shakspearian Parallels. 125 

Take all the swift advantage of the hours. 

King Richard III., Act iv., Scene 1. 

The time is worth the use on't. 

Winter's Tale, Act in., Scene 1. 

'Tis a sharper who that stakes his penury 
Against the plenty — who takes thy ready cash, 
And pays thee nought but wishes, hopes, and promises, 
The currency of idiots. Cotton. 

The greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depends 
upon the future. We let go the present, which we have in our 
power, and look forward to that which depends upon chance, and so 
quit a certainty for an uncertainty. Seneca. 

Borne down with years, still doat upon to-morrow ! 

That fatal mistress of the young, the lazy, 

The coward, and the fool, condemned to lose 

A useless life in wishing for to-morrow. . 

To gaze with longing eyes upon to-morrow, 

Till interposing death destroys the prospect. 

Johnson. 
" To-day gold, to-morrow dust." — Danish proverb. The French 
have a parallel proverb, " Aujourd'hui roi, demain rien ; " while the 
Finlanders say, " To-day well, to-morrow cold in the mouth." 

To-morrow you will live, you always cry : 

In what far country does this morrow lie, 

That 'tis so mighty long ere it arrive ? 

Beyond the Indies does this morrow live ? 

'Tis so far-fetched, this morrow, that I fear 

'Twill be both very old and very dear. 

To-morrow I will live, the fool doth say, 

To-day itself s too late ; the wise lived yesterday. 

Martial. 
Hewho prorogues the honesty of to-day till to-morrow, will probably 
prorogue his to-morrows to eternity. Jeremy Taylor. 

You will become ashes, a ghost, a gossip's tale ! Live, remember- 
ing you must die: the hour flies; this very word I speak is subtracted 
from it. . Persius. 



j 26 Bible Truths, with 

What we should do, 
We should do when we would : .for this would 

changes, 
And hath abatements and delays as many 
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents ; 
And then this should is like a spendthrift sigh 
That hurts by easing, (e) 

Hamlet, Act iv., Scene 7. 

For 
Purpose is but the slave to memory, 
Of violent birth, but poor validity. 

Hamlet, Act in., Scene 2. 

LXII. 
TIME THE TEST OF TRUTH. 
And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, 

(c) At thirty, man suspects himself a fool, 

Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan ; 

At fifty chides his infamous delay, 

Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve ; 

In all the magnanimity of thought. 

Resolves and re-resolves ; then dies the same. 

Young. 
Myself have been an idle truant, 
Omitting the sweet benefit of time 
To clothe mine age with angel-like perfection. 

Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act 11., Scene 1. 
■ The flighty purpose never is o'ertook, 
Unless the deed go with it. 

Macbeth, Act iv... Scene 1. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 127 

and let them alone ; for if this counsel or this work 
be of men, it will come to nought ; but if it be of 
God, ye cannot overthrow it. 1 Acts v. 38, 39. 



Time's glory is 

To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light. 

Poems. 

Time is the old justice that examines all offenders. 
As You Like It, Act iv., Scene 1. 

I (Time) that please some, try all. 

Water's Tale, Act v., Chorus. 

) ar . 
That old, common , oitrator, Time, (a) 
d ' c w 

Troilus nTD Cressida, Act IV., Scene 5. 
;e 



LXIII. 

PRECEPT AT VARIANCE WITH 
PRACTICE. 

What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or 
that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth ? 



1 I'rov. xxi. 30 ; Isa. viii. io. 

{a) Time destroys the speculations of man, but it confirms the 
judgment of nature. ClCERO. 



128 Bible Truths, with 

Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my 
words behind thee. Ps. 1. 16, 17. 

Thou which teachest another, teachest thou not 
thyself? Rom. ii. 21. 

Is. Saul also among the prophets? 

1 Sam. xix. 24. 

This people draw near me with their mouth, and 
with their lips do honour me, but have removed 
their heart far from me, 1 and their fear toward me 
is taught by the precept of men. Isa. xxix. 13. 

Thou art near in their n K ith, and far from their 
reins. 1. j E r. xii. 2. 



Why call ye me, Lord, ^ord, and do not the 
things which I say ? 2 Luke vi. 46. 



Hast thou that holy feeling in thy soul 
To counsel me to make my peace with God ? 
And art thou yet to thy own soul so blind, 
That thou wilt war with God ? 

King Richard III., Act 1., Scene 1 

1 Ezek. xxxiii. 32 ; Matt. xv. 7, 9. 

2 Mai. i. 6; Matt. vii. 21, xxv. n, 12; Luke-xiii. 25. 



Sliakspearian Parallels. i 29 

The flamen,* 
That scolds against the quality of the flesh, 
And not believes himself. 

Timon of Athens, Act iv., Seme 3. 

How canst thou urge God's dreadful law to us, 

When thou hast broke it in such dear degree ? 

King Richard III., Act 1., Scene 4. 

I have heard you preach 
That malice was a great and grievous sin ; 
And will you not maintain the word you teach, 
But prove a chief offender in the same ? 

King Henry VI., 1st Part, Act III., Scene 1. 

Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, 
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven ; 
Whilst, like a puff' d and reckless libertine, 
Himself the primrose-path of dalliance treads, (b) 
Hamlet, Act 1., Scene 5. 

* Priest. 

(b) Theology is rather a divine life than a divine knowledge. 

. Jeremy Taylor. 

The misfortune is, some come only to hear, not to learn ; as they 
attend the. theatre for pleasure's sake, to delight the ear with some 
speech, or a sweet tone of voice, or a diverting story exhibited in 
comedy. Such you will find great part of an audience who make 
the philosophical school but a place of idle resort. They come not 
thither in order to dispossess themselves of any vice, or to receive 
any law for the better ordering of manners or better conduct of life, 
but to please the ear with the twang of eloquence. Seneca. 

It is a good divine that follows his own instructions. I can easier 
teach twenty what were good to be done than be one of the twenty 
to follow mine own teaching. 

Merchant of Venice, Act 1., Scene 2. 

9 



130 Bible Truths, with 

LXIV. 

MORAL BLINDNESS OF THE WICKED. 

From the wicked their light is withholden. 1 

JOB xxxviii. 15. 

The way of the wicked is as darkness ; they 
know not at what they stumble. 2 Prov. iv. 19. 

Evil men understand not judgment ; but they 
that seek the Lord understand all things. 3 

Prov. xxviii. 5. 

Having their understanding darkened, being- 
alienated from the life of God through the igno- 
rance that is in them, because of the blindness of 
their heart. 4 Eph. iv. 18. 

But he that lacketh these things is blind, and 
cannot see afar off. 2 Peter i. 9. 

And for this cause God shall send them strong 
delusion that they should believe a lie. 5 

2 Thess. ii. 11. 

1 Prov. xiii. 9; Job xxi. 17. 

2 Job xxiv. 13, xviii. 5, 6, 18 ; Isa. lix. IO ; I Sam. ii. 9. 

3 John vii. 17 ; Ps. xxv. 9. 

4 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. 

5 Jer. xxiii. 12 ; Rom. i. 28. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 13 1 

For the bewitching of naughtiness cloth obscure 
things that are honest. Wisdom iv. 12. 

Their own wickedness hath blinded them. 

Wisdom ii. 21. 



Good, my lord. 

But when we in our viciousness grow hard, 

(Oh misery on't !) the wise gods seal our eyes ; 

In our own filth drop our clear judgments ; make us 

Adore our errors : laugh at us while we strut 

To our confusion, (a) 

WtSTS&'^-T-AiiBr-Aa in., Scene AT 

Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile, 
Filths savour but themselves. 

King Lear, Act iv., Scene 2. 

(«) It is not given to those who do not prize straightforwardness 
for its own sake to perceive that it is the wisest course. 

Archbishop Whately. 

That which is best is not apparent except to a good man. De- 
pravity distorts the judgment and produces deception about the 
practical principles. Hence it is evident that it is impossible for 
any one to be a prudent man unless he is also a good man. 

Aristotle. 

Faults in the life breed errors in the brain. Cowper. 

Wicked men, however learned, do not know the Scriptures, be- 
cause they feel them not, and because they are not understood but 
with the same spirit that writ them. Herbert. 

This is the saddest form of lying, V'the lie that sinketh 1 in," as 
Bacon says, — which becomes part of the character, and goes on eat- 
ing the rest away. Helps. 



132 Bible Truths, with 

LXV. 

A GOOD WIFE. 

A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband. 

Prov. xii. 4. 

The heart of her husband doth safely trust in 
her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. 1 

Prov. xxxi. 11. 



As for my wife, 
I would you had her spirit in such another, 
The third o' the world is yours. 

Antony and Cleopatra, Act 11., Scene 2. 

You are my true and honourable wife, 
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops 
That visit my sad heart, (a) 

Julius Cesar, Act 11., Scene 



1 1 Cor. xi. 7 ; Prov. xxxi. 10 ; Ecclus. xxvi. 14. 

(tr) A good wife is Heaven's last best gift to man, his angel and 
minister of graces innumerable, his gem of jnany virtues, his casket 
of jewels. Her voice is sweet music ; her smiles his brightest day ; 
her kiss the guardian of his innocence ; her arms the pale of his 
safety, the balm of his health, the balsam of his life ; her industry 
his surest wealth ; her economy his safest steward ; her lips his faith- 
ful counsellors ; her bosom the softest pillow of his cares ; and her 
prayers the ablest advocates of Heaven's blessing on his head. 

Jeremy Taylor. 



Shakspearian Parallels. \$Z 

LXVI. 
A BAD WIFE. 

It is better to dwell in a corner of the house-top, 
than with a brawling woman in a wide house. 1 

Prov. xxi. 9. 

I had rather dwell with a lion and a dragon, 
than to keep house with a wicked woman. All 
wickedness is but little to the wickedness of a 
woman. A wicked woman maketh an heavy 
countenance, and a wounded heart. 

Ecclus. xxv. 16, 19, 23. 

An evil wife is a yoke shaken to and fro : he 
that hath hold of her is as though he held a 
scorpion. 2 Ecclus. xxvi. 7. 



Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self, 
Thy wish, exactly to thy heart's desire. 

Milton. 
Though fools spurn Hymen's gentle powers, 
We, who improve his golden hours, 

By sweet experience know 
That marriage, rightly understood, 
Gives to the tender and the good 

A Paradise below. Cotton. 

The world well tried, the sweetest thing in life 
Is the unclouded welcome of a wife. 

Wilt.is. 
Prov. xxi. 19, xix. 13. 

1 Kings xxi. 25 ; Ecclus. xxv. 13. 



134 Bible Truths, with 

It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with 
a contentious and an angry woman. Prov. xxi. 19. 



War is no strife, 
To the dark house, and the detested wife. 

All's Well that Ends Well, Act 11., Scene 3. 

Proper deformity seems not in the fiend 
So horrid as in woman. 

King Lear, Act rv, Scene 2. 

A light wife doth make a heavy husband. 

Merchant of Venice, Act v., Scene 1. 



LXVIL 

THE WICKED BLIND TO THEIR OWN 
WRETCHEDNESS. 

Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with 
goods, and have need of nothing : and knowest 
not that thou art wretched and miserable, and 
poor, and blind, and naked. 8 Rev. iii. 17. 

The way of a fcol is right in his own eyes. 4 

Prov. xii. 15. 

8 Hos. xii. 8; Isa. i. 5, 6. i Prov. iii. 7, xxvi. 12. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 1 3 5 

Men's faults do seldom to themselves appear. 
Their own transgressions partially they smother. 
O ! how are they rapt in with infamies, 
That from their own misdeeds askance their eyes, (a) 

Poems. 



LXVIII. 

THE HAPPINESS OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 

Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, ye righteous : 
and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart. 1 

Ps. xxxii. 11. 

I have set the Lord always before me : he is at 
my right hand, therefore my heart is glad. 

Ps. xvi. 8, 9. 

Virtue, — 
Led on by heaven and crown 'd with joy at last. 
Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act v., Scene 3. 



(a) Peradventure some synner will saye, I perceive nor feyle ony 
weight in myself do I never so many synnes. To whome we 
answere, that if a dogge havinge a grete stone bounde about his 
necke be cast downe from an high toure ; he feleth no weight of that 
stone as longe as he is fallinge downe ; but when he is ones fallen to 
the ground, he is brasten all to peces by the reason of that weight. 
So the synner goinge downe towarde the pyt of helle feleth not the 
grete burden of synne, but when he shall come into the depnes of 
helle he shall fele more payne than he wolde. 

Bishop Fisher (bom 1459 — died 1535). 

1 Phil. iv. 4 ; Vs. Ixiv. 10. 2 Acts ii. 28 : Ps. xxxvi. 8. 



136 Bible Truths, with 

Happiness, 
By virtue 'specially to be achieved, (a) 

Taming of the Shrew, Act 1., Scene 1. 

LXIX. 
THE WICKED CANNOT ELUDE GOD'S 

VENGEANCE. 
There is no darkness nor shadow of death, where 
the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. 1 

JOB xxxiv. 22. 

(a) What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy, 

The soul's calm sunshine and the heartfelt joy 
Is virtue's prize. Pope. 

Certainly it is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move in 
charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of truth. 

Bacon. 
The pleasure of the religious man is an easy and portable plea- 
sure, such an one as he carries about in his bosom, without alarming 
either the eye or the envy of the world. South. 

There is not in the scale of nature a more inseparable connexion 
of cause and effect than in the case of happiness and virtue ; nor any- 
thing that more naturally produces the one, or more necessarily pre- 
supposes the other. Seneca. 

Goodness, does not more certainly make men happy than happi- 
ness makes them good. The reaction of goodness and happiness is 
perpetual. Landor. 

In order to be happy in any high degree, we must abandon our- 
selves, according to the will of God, and after the pattern of His 
Son, to the temporal and spiritual benefit of mankind. 

Robert Hall. 
To be good is to be happy : angels 
Are happier than men because they're better. 

Rovve. 
1 Prov. xv. 3 ; Isa. xxix. 15 ; Ezek. viii. 12 ; Gen. xvi. 13. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 137 

Can any hide himself in secret places, that I 
shall not see him ? saith the Lord. 2 Jer. xxiii. 24. 

Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret 
sins in the light of thy countenance. Ps. xc. 8. 

Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the 
Lord looketh on the heart. 3 1 Sam. xvi. 7. 

All things are naked and open in the eyes of 
him with whom we have to do. Heb. iv. 13. 

Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine 
hand take them : though they climb up to heaven, 
thence will I bring them down : and though they 
hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search 
and take them out thence : and though they be hid 
from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence 
will I command the serpent, and he shall bite 
them. 4 Amos ix. 2, 3. 

Be not deceived ; God is not mocked ; for what- 
soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 5 

Gal. vi. 7. 



2 Job. xxii. 13, 14; Ps. x. 11. 

3 Acts i. 24 ; 1 Kings viii. 39 ; 1 Chron. xxvi 

4 Ps. exxxix. 8 ; Jer. li. 53. 

5 Job iv. 8 ; Prov. xi. 18 ; Hos. viii. 7. 



138 Bible Truths, with 

Behold, ye have sinned against the Lord ; and be 
sure your sin will find you out. 6 Num. xxxii. 23. 



In the*corrupted currents of this world,' 
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice ; 
And oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself 
Buys out the law. But 'tis not so above : 
There is no shuffling ; there the action lies 
In his true nature : and we ourselves compell'd, 
Even in the teeth and forehead of our faults, 
To give in evidence, (a) 

Hamlet, Act in., Scene 3. 

6 Gen. iv. 7, xliv. 16 ; Isa. lix. 12 ; Prov. xiii. 21. 

(a) With urn in hand the Cretan judge appears, 

And lives and crimes with his assessors hears 
The conscious wretch must all his acts reveal, 
Loth to confess, unable to conceal. Statiu.S. 

In the plains of truth Minos and Rhadamanthus are seated as 
judges to sift each of the comers as to what life he has led, and what 
pursuits he has followed in the body ; and to tell a falsehood is out 
of his power. Plato. 

If you reckon all the causes that come before all the judicatories 
-of the world, though the litigious are too many, and the matters of 
instance are intricate and numerous, yet the personal and criminal 
are so few, that of two thousand sins that cry aloud to God for 
vengeance, scarce two are noted by the public eye, and chastened by 
the hand of justice. Therefore God hath so ordained it, that there 
shall be a day of doom, wherein all that are let alone by men "shall 
be questioned by God, and every word and every action shall receive 
its just recompense of reward. Jeremy Taylor. 



Shakspeanan Parallels. 139 

Foul deeds will rise, 
Though all the earth o'erwhelm them to men's 
eyes. Hamlet, Act 1., Scene 2. 

Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides. 
King Lear, Act 1., Scene 1. 

Now if these men have defeated the law, and 
outrun native punishment, though they can outstrip 
men, they have no wings to fly from God. (b) 

King Henry V., Act iv., Scene r. 



(t>) What can 'scape the eye 

Of God, all-seeing, or deceive His heart 
Omniscient ? Milton. 

When silent night did sceptre take in hand, 
And dimm'd the day with shade of mantle black, 
What time the thieves in privy corners stand, 
And have no doubt to rob for what they lack ; 
A greedy thief in shambles broke a shop 
And fill'd a sack with flesh up to the top. 

Which done, with speed he lifted up the sack, 

And both the ends about his neck he knits, 

And ran away with burden on his back, 

Till afterwards till he at alehouse sits. 

The heavy load did weigh so hard behind, 

That while he slept the weight did stop his wind. 

Which truly shews to them which do offend, 
1 Although a while they 'scape their just deserts, 
Yet punishment doth at their backs attend. 
And plagues them home when they have merriest hearts : 
And though long time they do escape the pikes, 
Yet soon or late the Lord in justice strikes. 

Geffry Whitney (one of the earliest writers 
of Emblems, 1586). 



140 Bible Truths, with 

Heaven hath its countless eyes to view men's acts. $f 
Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act 1., Scene 1. 

Can we outrun the heavens ? 1 

King Henry VI., 2nd Part, Act v., Scene 2. 



LXX. 

A SINGLE FAULT SOMETIMES EXTIN- 
GUISHES ALL MERIT. 

Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary 
to send forth a stinking savour : so doth a little 
folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and 
honour. Eccles. x. i. 



Oft it chances, in particular men, 
That, for some vicious mole of nature in them, 
As in their birth, (wherein they are not guilty, - 
Since nature cannot choose her origin ;) 
Or by the overgrowth of some complexion, 
Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason ; 
Or by some habit that too much o'erleavens 
The form of plausive manners ; — that these men, 
Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect, 
Being nature's livery or fortune's star, — 



Wretch, though at first the perjured deed you hide, 
Wrath comes with certain though with tardy stride. 

TlBULLUS. 



Shakspcarian Parallels. 141 

Their virtues else (be they as pure as grace, 

As infinite as man may undergo,) 

Shall, in the general censure, take corruption 

From that particular fault ; the dram of base 

Doth all the noble substance often dout,* 

To his o\\\\ scandal. Hamlet, Act 1., Scene 4. 



LXXI. 

THE DANGERS OF IDLENESS. 

By much slothfulness the building decayeth ; 
and through idleness of the hands the house 
droppeth through. Eccles. x. 18. 

Send him to labour that he be not idle ; for 
idleness teacheth much evil. Ecclus. xxxiii. 27. 



Idle weeds are fast in growth. 

King Richard III., Act in., Scene 1. 

Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know, 
My idleness doth hatch. 

Antony and Cleopatra, Act 1., Scene 2. 



* i.e., "do out," the reading adopted by Stevens, Knight, Collier, 
and Caldecott. 



142 Bible Truths, with 

Oh, then we bring forth weeds, 
When our quick minds lie still, (a) 

Antony and Cleopatra, Act i., Scene 2. 



(a) It is with us as with other things in nature, which by motion 
are preserved in their native purity and perfection, in their sweetness, 
in their lustre, rest corrupting, debasing, and defiling them. If the 
water runneth, it holdeth clear, sweet, and fresh ; but stagnation 
turneth it into a noisome puddle. If the air be fanned by winds, 
it is pure and wholesome ; but from being shut up, it groweth thick 
and putrid. If metals be employed, they abide smooth and splen- 
did ; but lay them up, and they soon contract rust. If the earth be 
belaboured with culture, it yieldeth corn ; but, lying neglected, it 
will be overgrown with brakes and thistles ; and' the better its soil 
is, the ranker weeds it will produce. All nature is upheld in its 
being, order, and state by constant agitation ; every creature is in- 
cessantly, employed in action conformable to its designed end and use. 
In like manner, the preservation and improvement of our faculties 
depends upon their constant exercise. Barrow. 

Ydelnes, that is the gate of all harmes. 

An ydil man is like an hous that hath noone walls ; 

The develes may entre in on every syde. 

Chaucer. 

Idleness is the bane of body and mind, the nurse of naughtiness, 
the stepmottier of discipline, the chief author of all mischief, one 
of the seven deadly sins, the cushion on which the devil chiefly 
reposes, and a great cause not only of melancholy, but of many 
other diseases ; for the mind is naturally active ; and if it be not 
occupied about some honest business, it rushes into mischief, or sinks 
into melancholy. Burton. 

From worldly cares himself he did esloyne, 

And greatly shunned manly exercise ; 

From everie worke he chalenged essoyne 

For contemplation's sake ; yet otherwise, 

His life he led in lawlesse riotise, 

By which he grew to grievous malady ; 

For in his lustesse limbs, through evil guise,, 



Shakspearian Parallels. 143 

LXXII. 
THE ENVY OF THE WICKED. 

The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh 
to slay him. 1 Ps. xxxvii. 32. 

The scribes and Pharisees watched [Jesus], 
whether he would heal on the Sabbath day ; that 
they might find an accusation against him. 2 

Luke vi. 7. 



Know you not, master, to some kind of men, 
Their graces serve'them but as enemies ? 
Oh, what a world is this, when what is comely 
Envenoms him that bears it ! 

As You Like It, Act 11., Scene 3. 

A shaking fever raig'd continually : 

Such one was Idlenesse, first of this company. 

Spenser. 
Some' one, in casting up his accounts, put down a very large sum 
for his idleness. But there is another account more awful than our 
expenses, in which many will find that their idleness has mainly 
contributed to the balance against them. From its very inaction, 
idleness ultimately becomes the most active cause of evil, as a palsy 
is more to be dreaded than a fever. Colton. 

Idleness is a constant sin, and but the devil's home for temptation 
and for unprofitable, distracting musings. Baxter. 

The devil tempts all other men, but an idle man tempts the devil. 

Turkish Proverb. 
1 Gen. xxxvii. iS — 20, xxvii. 41. 2 Dan. vi. 4. 



144 Bible Truths, with 



LXXIII. 

SELF-DELUSION AND SHORTSIGHTED- 
NESS OF THE WICKED. 

They (sinners) lay wait for their own blood ; they 
lurk privily for their own lives. 3 Prov. i. 18. 

Let his own net that he hath hid catch himself; 
into that very destruction let him fall. 4 Ps. xxxv. 8. 

So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he 
had prepared for Mordecai. 5 Esther vii. 10. 

His mischief shall return upon his own head, and 
his violent dealing shall come down upon his own 
pate. Ps. vii. 1 6. 

The wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. 6 

Prov. xi. 5. 



For 'tis the sport to have the engineer 
Hoist with his own petard. 



Hamlet. 



Matt, xxvii. 3 — 5. 5 Ps. ix. 15, 16. 

Dan. vi. 24; Ps. xxxvii. 35, 36. ' 6 Ps. vii. 15 ; Ezek. xviii. 27. 



Shakspesi rian Parallels. 1 4 5 

How is't, Laertes ? 
Why as a woodcock to my own springe, Osric. 
I am justly killed with mine own treachery, (a) 
Hamlet, Act v., Scene 2. 

Though those that are betray'd 
Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor 
Stands in worse case of woe. (b) 

Cymbeline, Act in., Scene 4. 

What things are we ! 

Merely our own traitors, (c) And as in the 



(a) "I have seen as great a marvel," said Cloudesly, 

' ' As between this and prime. 
He that maketh a grave for me, 
Himself may lie therein." 

Old Ballad. 

(/>) Folly and subtlety divide the greatest part of makind ; and 
there is no other difference but this, that some are crafty enough to 
deceive, others foolish enough to be cozened and abused ; and yet 
the scales also turn, for they that are the most crafty to cozen others, 
are the veriest fools, and most of all abuse themselves. They rob 
their neighbour of his money, and lose their innocency ; they disturb 
his rest, and vex their own conscience ; they throw him into prison, 
and themselves into hell ; they make poverty to be their brother's 
portion, and damnation to be their own. Jeremy Taylor. 

He harms himself that harms another's ill, 
And evil counsels plague their authors still. 

Hesiod. 

(c) The thief steals from himself. The swindler swindles himself. 
If you put a chain round the neck of a slave, the other end fastens 
itself round your own. Bad counsel confounds the adviser. The 
devil is an ass. Emerson. 

IO 



146 Bible Truths, with 

common course of all treasons, we still see them 
reveal themselves, till they attain to their abhorred 
ends ; so he that contrives against his cwn nobility, 
in his proper stream o'erflows himself, (d) 

All's Well that Ends Well, Act iv., Scene 3. 

Time's glory is — 

To meek the subtle, in themselves beguiled, (e) 

Poems. 



I have you in a purse-net, 
Good master Picklock, with your worming brain 
And wriggling engine-head. Ben Jonson. 

I deny, Callicles, that to be struck in the face unjustly is most 
disgraceful, or for my body or purse to be cut ; but that to strike 
unjustly, to me and mine is both more disgraceful and worse ; and 
that to rob, enslave, break open a house, and, in short, to injure in 
any respect me and mine, is both more disgraceful, and worse for 
him who does the injury, than for me who am injured. 

Plato. 

(d) Revenge commonly hurts both the offerer and sufferer ; as we 
see in the foolish bee, which, in her anger, envenometh the flesh, 
and loseth her sting, and so lives a drone ever after. 

Bishop Hall. 

(e) Certainly there is a great difference between a cunning man 
and a wise man, not only in point of honesty, but in point of ability. 

Bacon . 

The ordinary employment of artifice is the mark of a petty mind ; 
and he who uses it to cover himself in one place, uncovers himself 
in another. La Rochefoucauld. 

For an honest man, half his wits is' enough ; the whole are too 
little for a knave. Italian Proverb. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 147 

LXXIV. 
IMMORTALITY. 

Neither can they die any more ; for they are 
equal unto the angels. 1 Luke x.\. 36. 

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 

1 Cor. xv. 26. . 

That mortality might be swallowed up of life. 

2 Cor. v. 4. 

And there shall be no more death. Rev. xxi. 3. 



And, death once dead, there's no more dying 
:hen. Poems. 

My comfort is that Heaven will take our souls, (a) 
King Richard II., Act 111., Scene 1. 



1 Hos. xiii. 14 ; Isa. xxv. 8 ; John xi. 25 ; 1 Cor. xv. 54, 55. 

2 Rev. xx. 14 ; 2 Tim. i. 10 ; Heb. ii. 14 ; Rom. viii. 17. 
(a) And he, shall he, 

Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair, 
Such splendid purpose in his eyes, 
Who roll'd the psalm to wintry skies, 

Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer ; 

Who trusted God was love indeed, 
And love Creation's final law ; 
Though Nature, red in tooth and claw, 

With ravine shriek'd 'against his creed : 



148 Bible Truths, with 

I do not set my life at a pin's fee ; 
And, for my soul, what can it do to that 
Being a thing immortal ? (b) 

Hamlet, Act I., Scene 4. 



LXXV. 

INSTINCT. 

The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass . his 
master's crib. 1 - Isa. i. 3. 



Nature teaches beasts to know their friends. 

CORIOLANUS, Act 11., Scene 2. 



Who loved, who suffer'd countless ills, 
Who battled for the True, the Just, 
Be blown about the desert dust, 

Or seal'd within the iron hills ? . 

Tennyson. 

(b) Socrates yielded his body to be bound, but by no means his 
soul, over which the Athenians had no power. 

Maximus Tyrius. 

But suppose anyone should come and murder me when I am 
alone ? Fool ! he would not murder thee, but that insignificant body 
of thine. Epictetus. 

When the day comes that will separate this composition, human 
and divine, I will leave this body here where I found it, and return 
to the gods. Seneca. 



Jer. viii. 7. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 149 

LXXVI. 

THE LAW OF KINDNESS. 

Thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine 
hand from thy poor brother ; but thou shalt open 
thy hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him 
sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth. 2 

Deut. xv. 7, 8. 

Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that 
would borrow of thee turn not thou away. 3 

Matt. v. 42. 



We are born to do benefits, (a) 

Timon of Athens, Act 1., Scene 2. 

What is yours to bestow, is not yours to reserve. 
Twelfth Night, Act 1., Scene 5. 



1 John iii. 17 ; 2 Peter i. 5 — 7 ; 1 John iv. 21 ; John xiii. 35. 

3 Luke vi. 34 ; Prov. iii. 28. 

{a) The race of mankind would perish, did they cease to aid each 
other. From the time that the mother binds the child's head, till 
the moment that some kind assistant wipes the damp from the brow 
of the dying, we cannot exist without mutual aid ; all, therefore, that 
need aid, have a right to ask it from their fellow-mortals ; none who 
hold the power of granting aid can refuse it without guilt. 

Sir Walter Scott. 



1 50 Bible Truths, with 

To build his fortune, I will strain a little, 
For 'tis a bond in men. 

Timon of Athens, Act 1., Scene 1. 



LXXVIL 

THE BANEFUL EFFECTS OF 
INTEMPERANCE. 

Who hath woe ? who hath sorrow ? who hath 
contentions ? who hath babblings ? who hath 
wounds without cause ? who hath redness of eyes ? 
They that tarry long at the wine. At the last, it 
biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. 1 

Prov. xxiii. 29, 30, 32. 

The end of that mirth is heaviness. 

Prov. xiv. 13. 

Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, 
that they may follow strong drink ! that continue 
until night, till wine inflame them ! 2 Isa. v. ii. 

Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging ; and 
whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. 3 

Prov. xx. i. 

1 Ecclus. xxxi. 20. 

2 Eph. v. 18 ; Luke xxi. 34; 1 Pet. iv. 3 ; Isa. v. 22. 

3 Isa. xxviii. 7. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 1 5 1 

Drunkenness increaseth the rage of a fool till he 
offend; it diminisheth strength and maketh wounds. 

Ecclus. xxxi. 30. 

Wine measurably drunk and in season bfingeth 
gladness of heart, and cheerfulness of the mind ! 4 
But wine drunken with excess maketh bitterness of 
the mind, 3 with brawling and quarrelling. 

Ecclus. xxxi. 28, 29. 

Wine has destroyed many. 6 Ecclus. xxxi. 25. 



O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no 
name to be known by, let us call thee devil. . . . 
O that men should put an enemy in their mouths, 
to steal away their brains ! that we should with 
joy, revel, pleasure, and applause, transform our- 
selves to beasts, (a) 

Othello, Act 11., Scene 3. 

4 Ps. civ. 15. 5 Hos. iv. 11. 

6 2 Sam. xiii. 28 ; 1 Kings xvi. 9 ; Judith xiii. 2, 8. 
(a) " I could well wish,"says Cassio, " courtesy would invent some 
other custom of entertainment." Othello, Act II., Scene 3. 

When Cyrus had espied Astyages and his fellows coming drunk 
from a banquet, loaden with variety of follies and filthiness, their 
legs failing them, their eyes red and staring, cozened with a moist 
cloud, and abused by a double object, their tongues full of sponges, 
and their heads no wiser, he thought they were poisoned ; and he 
had reason ; for what malignant quality can be more venemous and 
hurtful to a man than the effect of an intemperate goblet and a full 



15- Bible Truths, with 

What's a drunken man like? Like a drowned 
man, a fool, and a madman ; one draught above 
heat makes him a fool ; the second mads him ; and 
the third drowns him. (b) 

Twelfth Night, Act I., Scene 5. 

To be now a sensible man, by-and-by a fool, and 
presently a beast ! O strange ! every inordinate 
cup is unblessed, and its ingredient is a devil, (c) 
Othello, Act 11., Scene 3. 

stomach ? It poisons both the soul and the body. He that tempts 
me to drink beyond my pleasure, civilly invites me to a fever, and to 
lay aside my reason. Jeremy Taylor. 

Drunkenness is a flattering devil, a sweet poison, a pleasant sin, 
which whosoever hath, hath not himself; which whosoever doth 
commits doth not commit sin, but he himself is wholly sin. 

St. Augustine. 

(6) No man oppresses thee, O free and independent franchiser ! 
but does not this stupid porter-pot oppress thee ? No son of Adam 
can bid thee come or go ; but this absurd pot of heavy wet, this can 
and does ! Thou art the thrall, not of Cedric the Saxon, but of thy 
own brutal appetites, and this scoured dish of liquor. And thou 
pratest of thy "liberty," thou entire blockhead. Carlyle. 

(c) It were better for a man to be subject to any vice than to 
drunkenness ; for the longer it possesseth a man, the more he will 
delight in it ; and the older he groweth, the more he shall be subject 
to it ; for it dulleth the spirits, and destroyeth the body as ivy doth 
the old tree ; or as the worm that engendereth in the kernel of the 
nut. Sir Walter Raleigh. 

This excess is an enemy bothio wealth and health ; it hath cut off 
much housekeeping, and brought many men to extreme beggary. 
For, as the ground, if it receives too much rain, is not watered, but 
drowned and turned into mire, which is neither fit for tillage nor for 
yielding of fruit, so our flesh, over-watered with wine, is not fit to 
admit the spiritual plough, or to bring forth the celestial fruits of 



Shatispearian Parallels. 153 

Poison'd hours hath bound me up 
From mine own knowledge. 

Antony and Cleopatra, Act 11., Scene 2. 

It hath pleased the devil, drunkenness, to give 
place to the devil, wrath ; one imperfectness shows 
me another, to make me frankly despisejnyself. (d) 
Othello, Act v., Scene "5. 

righteousness. The herbs that grow about it will be loathsome and 
stinking weeds, as brawling, chiding, blasphemy, slander, perjury, 
hatred, manslaughter, and such-like bad works of drunkenness and 
darkness. Are not these unsavoury fruits enough to make us abhor 
the tree? Archbishop Sandys. 

Drink not the third glass ; which thou canst not tame 
When once it is within thee : but, before, 
Mayst rule it as thou list : and pour the shame, 
Which it would pour on thee, upon the floor. 
It is most just to throw that on the ground 
Which would throw me there if I keep the round. 

Herbert. 
Man with raging wine inflamed 
• Is far more savage and untamed ; 
Supplies his loss of wit and sense 
With barb'rousness and insolence ; 
Believes himself the less he's able 
The more heroic and formidable ; 
Lays by his reason in his bowls 
As Turks are said to do their souls, 
Until it has so often been 
Shut out of its lodging and let in, 
At length it never can attain 
To find the right way back again. 

Butler. 
(</) Mine was th' insensate frenzied part, 

Ah ! why should I such scenes outlive ? 
Scenes so abhorrent to my heart ! 
'Tis thine to pity and forgive. 

Burns. 



154 Bible Truths, with 

Boundless intemperance 
In nature is a tyrant ; it hath, been 
Th' untimely emptying of the happy throne, 
And fall of many kings. 

Macbeth, Act iv., Scene 3. 



It is a custom 
More honour'd in the breach than the observance. 
This heavy-headed revel, east and west, 
Makes us traduced, and tax'd of other nations ; 
They 'clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase 
Soil our addition ; and indeed, it takes 
From our achievements, though perform'd at height, 
The pith and marrow of our attributes, (e) 

Hamlet, Act 1., Scene 4. 



(e) Though Hamlet speaks here of the Danes, Shakspeare 
(Othello, ii. 3) brings the character home to our own countrymen 
in still stronger terms. "England," says Iago, "where they are 
■ most potent in potting ; your Dane, your German, and your swag- 
bellied Hollander, are nothing to your English. Why, he drinks 
you with facility your Dane dead drunk ; he sweats not to overthrow 
your Almain ; he gives your Hollander a vomit, ere the next pottle 
can be filled." 

It is the inalienable birthright of every Briton to make a fool or a 
beast of himself as much as he pleases. The Times. 

If any one wishes to confess himself that this boozy " birthright of 
Britons " is no imaginary one, let him read the Parliamentary 
Report on Drunkenness (1834) ; also, the Report of the Select 
Committee on Public-houses (1853-4), and he will probably con- 
clude that neither Iago nor The Times exaggerates. 



Shakspcarian Para lies. 155 

LXXVIII. 

THE UNPROFITABLENESS OF AVARICE. 

There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth ; (a) 
and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, 
but it tendeth to poverty. 1 Prov. xi. 24. 



Foul cankering rust the hidden treasure frets ; 
But gold, that's put to use, more gold begets, (b) 

Poems. 

LXXIX. 

BREVITY OF LIFE. 

Our days upon earth are a shadow. 2 Job viii. 9. 

((7) Tithe and be rich. Eastern Proverb. 

The riches you give away are the only riches you will possess for 
ever. Martial. 

1 Haggai i. 6 ; Luke vi. 38. 

(l>) Be not penny wise. Riches have wings ; and sometimes they 
1y away of themselves, sometimes they must be set flying to bring 
n more. Bacon. 

Avarice is more opposite to economy than liberality. 

Due de la Rochefoucauld. 
Who shuts his hand hath lost his gold ; 
Who opens it hath it twice told. 

Herbert. 

2 Job. xiv. 1, 2 ; Ps. ciii. 15, 16. 



156 Bible Truths, with 

Man is like to vanity ; his days are as a shadow 
that passeth away. 3 . Ps. cxliv. 4. 

Grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet he 
knoweth not. Hos. vii. 9. 

My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle. 4 

Job vii. 6. 



Life's but a walking shadow, (a) 

Macbeth, Act v., Scene 5. 

Life is a shuttle. 

Merry Wives of Windsor, Act v., Scene 1. 

Some, how brief 'the life of man ! 

Runs his erring pilgrimage, 
That the stretching of a span 

Buckles in his sum of age. 

As You Like It, Act in., Scene 2. 

O gentlemen, the time of life is short ; 

To spend that shortness basely were too long, 

If life did ride upon a dial's point, " 

Still ending at the arrival of an hour, (b) 

King Henry IV., 1st Part, Act v., Scene 2. 

3 Ps. xxxix. 5 ; Isa. xl. 6. 4 James iv. 14; 1 Cor. vii. 29, 31. 
(a) 'What shadows we are, and what shadows we>pursue. 

Burke. 
{&) Those that lose a day are dangerously prodigal ; those that dare 
misspend it, desperate. Bishop Hall. 



Skakspearian Parallels. i 5 7 



LXXX. 
MAMMON. 

If there come into your assembly a man with a 
gold rinc?", in goodly apparel ; and there come in 
also a poor man in vile raiment ; and ye have re- 
spect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say 
unto him, Sit thou here in a go'od place ; and say to 
the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my foot- 
stool j 1 are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are 
become judges of evil thoughts ? 2 (a) 

James ii. 2—4. 

The poor man's wisdom is despised, and his 
words are not heard. Eccles. ix. 16. 



Then stay the present instant, dear Horatio ; 

Imprint the marks of wisdom on its wings ; 

'Tis of more worth than kingdoms ! far more precious 

Than all the crimson treasures of life's fountain. 

Oh, let it not elude thy grasp, but like 

The good old patriarch upon record 

Hold the fleet angel fast until he bless thee. 

Cotton. 
The great rule of moral conduct is, next to God, to respect time. 

Lavater. 
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts 
unto wisdom. Ps. xc. 12. 

1 Prov. xiv. 20, 21. 2 John vii. 24. 

(a) To judge of a man you must strip him of his ornaments, and 
all the advantages and impostures of fortune. Seneca. 

There are very many things which men with coats worn thread- 
bare dare not say. Juvenal. 



158 Bible Truths, with 

When a rich man speaketh, every man hol'deth 
his tongue, 3 and look, what he saith, they extol it 
to the clouds ; but if a poor man speak, they say, 
What fellow is this ? and if he stumble, they will 
help to overthrow him. 4 Ecclus. xiii. 23. 

Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear ; 
Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate sin with 

. gold, 
And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks ; 
Arm it with rags, a pigmy straw doth pierce it. 
King Lear, Act iv., Scene 6. 

The learned pate 
Ducks to the golden fool, (b) 

Timon of Athens, Act iv., Scene 3. 

Raise me this beggar, and denude that lord ; 
The senator shall bear contempt hereditary, 
The beggar native honour; 
It is the pasture lards the browser's sides, 
The want that makes him lean. 

Timon of Athens, Act iv., Scene 3.' 

3 Job xxix. 9. 4 Rom. xii. 16. 

(b) A man who is furnished with arguments from the Mint will 
convince his antagonist much sooner than one who draws them 
from reason and philosophy. Gold is a wonderful clearer cf the 
understanding ; it dissipates every doubt and scrapie in an instant, 
accommodates itself to the meanest capacities, silences the loud and 
clamorous, and brings over the most obstinate and inflexible. 

Addison. 



Shakspcarian Parallels. 159 



Let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shal 

stand at the king's mess. 

Hamlet, Act v., Scene 2. 

Oh what a world of vile, ill-favour'd faults 
Looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year. 
Merry Wives of Windsor, Act in., Scene 4. 

Faults that are rich are fair. 

Timon of Athens, Act 1., Scene 2. 

If money go before, all ways lie open, (c) 

Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 11., Scene 2. 



(c) Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair. 

Byron. 
We've money, th' only power 
That all mankind falls down before. 

Butler. 

You are, perhaps, a lord. Parliament being up, you go into the 
country. Your friend Lord Birmingham is entertaining a select 
circle of aristocracy at his noble country-seat. You are asked to join 
the favoured few : you reach the house just at luncheon-time. The 
guests are all assembled ; there is a duke, a marquis, an earl, a 
viscount, and a baron. You are yourself a younger son, and are not 
surprised to find the baron toadying the duke, as though he were a 
tailor waiting upon a city knight. Let that pass. There are two 
other guests, (if we may call that poor, silent, pale-faced, uncomfort- 
able-looking, self- immolated young man in the corner a guest, who 
looks very like a criminal taking his meal before execution, ) a youth, 
and a man of forty. Every one votes the former absent, and nobody 
can have too much of the latter. The youth is a clergyman's son, 
tutor to Lord Birmingham's son and heir ; he took honours at Cam- 
bridge, and means to fight hard in the world by-and-by. He has 
gentle blool in his veins, but not a sixpence in his pocket ; part of 



160 Bible Truths, with 

Oh that estates, degrees, and offices 
Were not derived corruptly ! and that clear honour 
Were purchased by the merit of the wearer ! 
How many then should cover that stand bare ! 



his salary goes home to his family, and as much of his good-breeding 
and learning as the patient will take is transferred to the son and heir. 
The scholar is good enough to stand in loco parentis to his pupil ; 
but his honours, his erudition, and his cultivation buy for him at the 
table the simple rank of an upper servant. * You know the style of 
the place, and are not surprised to see the youth, after a moderate 
and silent repast, retreat, ghost-like and unnoticed, from the fine 
apartment. Well, the aristocracy have a duty to perform ; they 
must sustain their order, and respect themselves. You hear a 
horse-laugh ; it is from the gentleman of forty. You never met 
him before, but you saw somebody very like him as you once passed 
through Smithfield market. It is the renowned Snobson. Ten 
years ago he served behind a counter (many a better man has done 
it). Speculation, and something else, have made him a man of 
millions, but nothing more. Vulgarity is enthroned in his heart, 
and is exuberant on his tongue. My lord's butler is a king to him, 
an emperor, a pope. The humblest occupant of plush is a hero at 
his side. You feel it when he talks, moves, eats, or drinks. Your 
flesh creeps in his company. You suspect that the groom of the 
chambers would think the individual out of his place in the steward's 



* Very closely akin to the spirit of this is the following satire of Bishop 
Hall's :— 

A gentle squire would gladly entertain 
Into his house some trencher chappelain, 
Some willing man that might instruct his sons, 
And that would stand to good conditions. 
First, that he lie upon the truckle-bed, 
Whiles his young master lieth o'er his head ; 
Second, that he do, on no default, 
Ever presume to sit above the salt ; 
Third, that he never change his trencher twice ; 
Fourth, that he use all common courtesies, 
Sit bare at meals, and one-half rise and wait. 
All these observed, he would contented be 
To give five marks, and winter livery. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 161 

How many be commanded that command ! 
How much low peasantry would then be glean'd 
From the true seed of honour ! and how much 

honour, 
Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times, 
To be new varnish'd. 

Merchant of Venice, Act n., Scene 9. 

LXXXI. 

THE FOOLISHNESS OF TRUSTING IN 

MAN. 
Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of 
man, in whom there is no help. 1 Ps. cxlvi. 3. 

room. You are satisfied that, if you could scrape off all the gold that 
encases that carcase, you would find nothing but the muddiest of 
mud-huts. You have the keenest possible perception of all this. 
Yet Lady Birmingham, who treats her son's tutor as though he.were 
a learned pig, and nothing higher in the animal chain, is absorbed in 
visible admiration. 

It is the same with all the ladies ; and as for the gentlemen, in- 
cluding the Duke, they are as proud of his acquaintance as they are 
innocent of his vulgarity, and complacent to his grossness. You 
know well enough what it all means. The thing is made of money. 
But then you remember again that the aristocracy have a duty to 
perform, must sustain their order, and respect themselves ; and for 
the life of you, you cannot conceive how the personal respect is con- 
sistent with the degrading adulation. The Times. * 
God of the world and worldlings, 
Great Mammon ! greatest god below the sky. 

Spenser. 
1 Job vii. 17. 



* This reappeared in the " Times Essays " (first series). The passage occur; 
in the essay on " Railway Novels." 



1 62 Bible Truths, with 

Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that 
trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and 
whose heart departeth from the Lord. 2 Jer. xvii. 5. 

Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his 
nostrils. 3 Isa. ii. 22. 



O momentary grace of mortal man, 

Which we more hunt for than the grace of God! 

Who builds his hope in air of your fair looks, 

Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast : 

Ready with every nod to tumble down 

Into the fatal bowels of the deep, (a) 

King Richard III., Act in., Scene 4. 

An habitation giddy and unsure, 

Hath he that bujldeth on the vulgar heart. 

King Henry IV., 2nd Part, Act 1., Scene 3. 



2 Heb. iii. 12. 8 Ps. cxviii. 8, 9. 

{a) Thou must not place any confidence in frail and mortal man, 
however endeared by reciprocal affection or offices of kindness ; nor 
art thou to be grieved when, for some change in their temper, they 
become unfriendly and injurious : for men are as inconstant as the 
wind, and he that is for thee to-day, may to-morrow be against thee. 
But place thy whole confidence in God, and let Him be all thy fear, 
and all thy love : He will answer for thee against the great accuser, 
and do that which is most conducive to thy deliverance from evil. 

Thomas A'Kempis. 
O impotence of faith, Minerva cries, 
If man on frail, unknowing man relies. 

Homer. 



Shaksfiearian Parallels. 163 

What is the trust or strength of foolish men ? 

KING Hexry VI., \st Bart, Act in., Scene 1. 

He that depends 
Upon your favours swims with fins of lead, 
And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye ! trust 

ye ! 
With every minute you do change a mind : 
And call him noble that was now your hate — 
Him vile that was your garland.* 

' CoRIOLANUS, Act L, Scene 1. ■ 

Poor wretches, that depend 
On greatness' favour, dream, 
Wake, and find nothing. 

Cvmbeline, Act v., Scene 4. 

LXXXIL 
THE GRANDEUR OF MAN'S NATURE. 
He is the image and glory of God. 1 1 Cor. xi. 7. 
Made after the similitude of God. James iii: 9. 

Thou madest him to have dominion over the 
works of thy hands : thou hast put all things under 
his feet. Ps. viii. 6. 



* Spoken to a multitude. 
1 Gen. i. 27 ; Ps. c. 3. 



164 Bible Truths, with 

What a piece of work is man I how noble in 
reason ! how infinite in faculties ! In form and 
moving, how express and admirable ! In action, 
how like an angel ! In apprehension, how like a 
god ! The beauty of the world ! the paragon of 
animals ! (a) Hamlet, Act 11., Scene 2. 



(a) The essence of our being, the mystery in us that calls itself 
" I," — ah, what words have we for such things? — is a breath from 
heaven ; the Highest Being reveals Himself in man. This body, 
these faculties, this life of ours, is it not all as a vesture for that 
unnamed? "There is but one temple in the universe," says the 
devout Novalis, "and that is the body of man. Nothing is holier 
than that high form. Bending before men is a reverence done to 
this revelation in the flesh. We touch heaven when we lay our 
hand on a human body ! " This sounds much like a mere flourish 
of rhetoric, but it is not so. If well meditated, it will turn out to be 
a scientific fact ; the expression in such words as can be had, of the 
actual truth of the thing. We are the miracle of miracles — the 
great inscrutable mystery of God. We cannot understand it, we 
know not how to speak of it, but we may feel and know, if we like, 
hat it is verily so. Carlyle. 

This animal — prescient, sagacious, complex, acute, full of memory, 
reason, and counsel, which we call man — has been generated by the 
supreme God in a most transcendent condition. Cicero. 

The grandeur of man's nature turns to insignificance all outward 
distinctions. His powers of intellect, of conscience, of love, of know- 
ing God, of perceiving the beautiful, of acting on his own mind, oh 
outward nature, and on his own fellow-creatures, — these are glorious 
prerogatives. Through the vulgar error- of undervaluing what is 
common, we are apt, indeed, to pass these by, as of little worth. 
But as in the outward creation, so in the soul, the common is the 
'most precious. Science and art may invent splendid modes of illu- 
minating the apartments of the opulent : but these are all poor 
and worthless co mpaied with the light which the sun sends into our 
/indows, which he pours freely, impartially, over hill and valley, 



Skakspearian Parallels. 165 

LXXXIIL 

THE MARRIAGE TIE A SACRED ONE. 

What therefore God hath joined together, let 
not man put asunder. 1 Matt. xix. 6. 



God forbid that I should wish them sever'd, 
Whom God hath join'd togther. 

King Henry VI., yd Part, Act IV., Scene 1. 

A world-without-end bargain. 

Love's Labour's Lost, Act iv., Scene 3. 

God, the best maker of all marriages, 
Combine your hearts in one. 

King Henry V., Act v., Scene 1. 



LXXXIV. 

MEN'S CURSES RECOIL ON THEIR 
OWN HEADS. 

As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him. 
As he clothed himself with cursing like as with 

which kindles daily the eastern and western sky; and so the common 
lights of reason, and conscience, and love, are of more worth and 
dignity than the rare endowments which give celebrity to a few. 

C MANNING. 

1 I Cor. vii. 10, 11. 



1 66 Bible Truths, with 

his garment, so let it come into his bowels like 
water, and like oil into his bones. Ps. cix. 17, 18. 



Dread curses — like the sun 'gainst glass, 
Or like an overcharged gun, recoil, (a) 

King Henry VI., 2nd Part, Act ill.,, Scene 2. 

Take heed, lest by your heat you burn yourselves, (b) 
. King Henry VI., 2nd fart, Act v., Scene 1. 



LXXXV. 

MERCY AN ATTRIBUTE OF GOD. 
He delighteth in mercy. 1 Micah vii. 18. 

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, 
and plenteous in, mercy. Ps. ciii. 8. 

To the Lord our God belong mercies and for- 
giveness, though we have rebelled against him. 2 

Dan. ix. 9. 

(«) Curses, like chickens, always come home to roost. 

Turkish Proverb. 
Ashes always fly back in the face of him that throws them. 

Proverb. 
(/>) Whosoever is out of patience, is out of possession of his soul. 
Men must not turn bees, and kill themselves in stinging others. 

Bacon. 
1 Isa. liv. 7, 8. 2 Neh. ix. 16, 17 ; Ps. cxxx. 4, 7. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 167 

The Lord is long-su fife ring and of great mercy. 3 

Numb. xiv. iS. 



But mercy is above this sceptred sway, 
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings : 
It is an attribute to God himself, (a) 

Merchant of Venice, Act iv., Scene \. 

Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods ? 
Draw near them then in being merciful. 

Titus Andronicus, Act 1., Scene 2. 



LXXXVI. 

THE BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF MIRTH. 

A merry heart doth good like a medicine ; but a 
broken spirit drieth the bones. Prov. xviL 22. 

He that is of a merry heart, hath a continual 
feast. Prov. xv. i 5. 

A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance ; 
but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. 

Prov. xv. 13. 

3 Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7 ; Ps. cxlv. 8. 

[a) Sith in the Almighty's everlasting seat, 

She* first was bred and born of heavenly race, 
From thence pour'd clown on men by influence of grace. 

Spenser. 

* Mercy. 



1 68 Bible Truths, with 

Give not over thy mind to heaviness, and afflict 
not thyself in thine own counsel. 1 The gladness 
of the heart is the life of a man : and the joyful- 
ness of a man prolongeth his days. 

ECCLUS. XXX. 21, 22. 



A light heart lives long. 

Love's Labour's Lost, . Act v., Scene a. 

Care's an enemy to life, (a) 

Twelfth Night, Act l, Scene 3. 

1 Prov. xii. 25 - f Ecclus. xxx. 23, 24. 

(a) Be merry in honesty j for' sorrow and care hath killed many. 

Dean Colet. 
Youth wall never live to age, without they keep themselves in 
hreath with exercise, and in heart with joyfulness. Too much think- 
ing doth consume the spirits. Sir Philip Sydney. 
'Tis mirth that fills the veins with blood, 
More than wine, or sleep, or food. 
Let each man keep his heart at ease : 
No man dies of that disease. 
He that would his body keep 
"From diseases must not weep : 
But whoever laughs and sings, 
Never he his body brings 
Into fevers, gouts, or rheums, 
Or, ling'ringly, his lungs consumes, 
But, contented, lives for aye ; 
The more he laughs, the more he may. * 

Beaumont and Fletcher. 



* This may be thought a little extravagant, and taking the full latitude of the 
poetic licence, hut the authors of the " Knight of the Burning Pestle," from which 
it is taken, go a good deal further. Not content with expatiating on the vitality 
of mirth, they seem to think that sadness is scarcely honest, as we find the follow- 
ing in the mouth of one of the characters of the same piece : " Never trust a tailor 
that does not sing at his work." 



Shakspearian Parallels. 169 

A merry heart goes all the day, 
Your sad tires in a mile. 

Winter's Tale, Act iv., Scene 2. 



Sweet recreation barr'd what doth ensue, 
But moody and dull melancholy, 
(Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair), 
And, at her heels, a huge infectious troop 
Of pale distemperatures, and foes to life, {b) 

t COMEDY OF ERRORS, Act v., Scene 1. 



Joy, and temperance, and repose, 
Slam the door in the doctor's nose. 

Longfellow {from the German). 

Joy is one of the greatest panaceas of life. No joy is more health- 
ful, or better calculated to prolong life, than that which is found in 
domestic happiness, in- the company of cheerful men, and in contem- 
plating with delight the beauties of nature. A day spent in the 
country, under a serene sky, amidst a circle of agreeable friends, is 
certainly a more positive means of prolonging life than all the vital 
elixirs of the world. Laughter, that eternal expression of joy, must 
not here be omitted. It is the most salutary of all the bodily move- 
ments, for it agitates both the body and the soul at the same time, 
promotes digestion, circulation, and perspiration, and enlivens the 
vital power in every organ. Hakeland. 

(/') Every sensation of any acuteness, perceptibly affects the pulse ; 
and how sensitive the heart is to emotions is testified by the familiar 
expressions which use heart and feeling as convertible terms. Simi- 
larly with the digestive organs. Without detailing the various ways 
in which these may be affected by our mental states, it sufficeth to 
mention the marked benefits derived by dyspeptics, as well as other 
invalids, from cheerful society, welcome news, change of scene, to 
show how pleasurable feeling stimulates the viscera in general into 
greater activity. Herbert Spencer. 



170 Bible Truths, with 

Why should a man whose blood is warm within 
Sit like his gfandsire cut in alabaster ? 
Sleep when he wakes ? and creep into the jaundice 
By being peevish ? (c) 

Merchant of Venice, Act 1., Scene 1. 



LXXXVII. 

MODERATION RECOMMENDED. 

Hast thou found honey ? eat so much as is suf- 
ficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and 
vomit it. 1 , Prov. xxv. 16. 

Let your moderation be known unto all men. 

Phil. iv. 5. 

Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your 

hearts be overcharged with surfeiting. 2 

Luke xxi. 34. 



A surfeit of the sweetest things 
The deepest loathing to the stomach brings. 
, Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 11., Scene 3. 

(c) In wooing sorrow let's be brief, 

Since, wedding it, there is such length of grief. 

King Richard II., ActY., Scene 1. 
Gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite 
The man that mocks at it, and sets it light. 

King Richard II., Act 1., Scene 3. 

1 1 Tim. iv. 4. 2 I Cor. ix. 25. 



Shctkspearian Parallels. 1 7 1 

Let's teach ourselves that honourable stop, 
Not to outsport discretion: (a) 

Othello, Act 11., Scene 3. 

The sweetest honey 
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness, 
And in the taste confounds the appetite ; 
Therefore love moderately. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act 11., Scene 6. 



LXXXVIII. 

THE LOVE OF MONEY THE ROOT OF 
ALL EVIL. 

But they that will be rich fall into temptation, 
and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful 
lusts, which drown men in destruction and per- 
dition. For the love of money is the root of all evil. 

1 Tim. vi. 9, 10. 

The deceitfulness of riches chokes the word, and 
he becometh unfruitful. 1 Matt. xiii. 22. 

Mortify therefore your members which are upon 
the earth; . . . and covetousness, which is idolatry. 

COL. iii. 5. 



[a) Without moderation, nothing can be either glorious or salutary. 

QUINTILIAN. 

1 Mark x. 21 — 23 ; 2 Tim. iv. 10. 



172 Bible Truths, with 

Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, 
went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, 
What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto 
you ? And they covenanted with him for thirty 
pieces of silver. 2 Matt. xxvi. 14, 15. 



How quickly nature 
Falls to revolt, when gold becomes her object, (a) 
King Henry IV., 2nd Part, Act iv., Scene 4. 

Avarice 
Grows with more pernicious root 
Than summer-seeding lust. 

Macbeth, Act iv., Scene 3. 

Gold ! yellow, glittering, precious gold, 
.... will make black, white ; foul, fa!r ; 

2 -Ecclus. xxxi. 6. 

(a) The love of money is a vertiginous pooL_ sucking all into it to 
destroy it. It is troubled and uneven, giddy and unsafe, serving no 
end but its own, and that also in a restless and uneasy fashion. 

Jeremy Taylor. 

Mammon has enriched his thousands, and has damned his ten 
thousands. South. 

Worldly wealth is the devil's bait, and those whose minds feed 
upon riches, recede in general from real happiness in proportion as 
their stores increase ; as the moon when she is fullest is farthest 
from the sun. , Burton. 



Skakspeartan Parallels. 173 

Wrong, right ; base, noble ; old, young ; coward, 
valiant. 

Why, this 
Will lug your priests and servants from your sides ; 
Pluck stout men's pillows from beneath their heads ; 
This yellow slave 

Will knit and break religions ; bless the accurs'd ; 
Make the hoar leprosy adored ; place thieves, 
And give them title, knee, and approbation, 
With senators on the bench. 

This it is 
That makes the wappen'd widow wed again ; 
She, whom the spittal-house and ulcerous sores 
Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices 
To the April day again, (a) 

Timon of Athens, Act iv., Scene x. 



(/>) There is not a vice which more effectually contracts and 
deadens the feelings, which more completely makes a man's affec- 
tions centre in himself, and excludes all others from partaking in 
them, than the desire of accumulating possessions. When the desire 
has once gotten hold of the heart, it shuts out all other considerations 
but such as may promote its views. In the zeal for the attainment 
of its end, it is not delicate in the choice of means. As it closes the 
heart, so also it clouds the understanding. It cannot discern between 
right and wrong ; it takes evil for good, and good for evil ; it calls 
darkness light, and light darkness. Beware, then, of the beginnings 
of covetousness, for you know not where it may end. 

Bishop Manx. 

All otherwise, (said he,) I riches read, 

And deem them root of all disquietnesse ; 

First got with guile ; and then preserved with dread ; 

And after spent with pride and lavishnesse ; 



174 Bible Truths, with 

There is thy gold ; worse poison to men's souls, 
Doing more murders in this loathsome world 
Than these poor compounds that thou may'st not 

sell; 
I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none.* 

Romeo and Juliet, Act v., Scene i. 

O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce 
'Twixt natural son and sire ! thou bright defiler 
Of Hymen's purest bed ! thou valiant Mars ! 
Thou ever young, fresh, loved, and delicate wooer 
That lies on Dian's lap ! thou visible God, 
That solder'st close impossibilities, 
And mak'st them kiss ! that speak'st with every 
toneue ; 



Leaving behind them grief and heavinesse. 

Infinite mischiefs of them doe arize ; 

Strife and debate, bloodshed and bittern esse, 

Outrageous wrong and hellish covetize, 

That noble hart in great dishonour doth despize. 

Spenser. 
Let it not be imagined that money-worship is peculiar to the 
aristocracy of this or any other country. Marchionesses, it is true, 
have forgotten their dignity in pursuit of their idol;, but the ignorant, 
the poor, and the ungovernable have waded through blood and 
unnatural murder in order to reach it. Hence too the starvation 
that glares upon us, from the holes and corners of the world, holes 
in which men, women, and children labour for a crust through the 
long hours of day and night, that some prosperous, sleek, and 
" universally respected " tradesman may minister to an inhuman 
love of cheapness, and fatten upon the flesh and blood of his obscure 
and helpless fellow-creatures. The Times. 

* Spoken to an apothecary. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 17 

To every purpose ! O thou touch of hearts ! 
Think, thy slave man rebels ; and by thy virtue 
Set them into confounding odds, that beasts 
May have the world in empire. 

Timon of Athens, Act iv., Scene 3. 



LXXXIX. 

MORAL CONFLICT. 

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the 
Spirit against the flesh ; and these are contrary the 
one to the other-; so that ye cannot do the things 
that ye would. 1 Gal. v. 17. 

For the good that I would I do not ; but the 
evil which I would not, that I do. For I delight 
in the law of God after the inward man. But I see 
another law in my members, warring against the 
law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to 
the law of sin which is in my members, (a) 

Rom. vii. 19—22, 23. 

1 John iii. 6, 7 ; Rom. viii. 6, 7. 

(a) He seems to hear a heavenly friend, 

And through thick veils to apprehend 
A labour working to an end. 

The end and the beginning vex 

His reason ; many things perplex, 

With motions, checks, and counter-checks. 



176 Bible Truths, with 

Within the infant rind of this small flower 

Poison hath residence, and medicine power ; 

For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each 

part — 
Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart. 

He knows a baseness in his blood, 

At some strange war with something good, 

He- may not do the thing he would. 

Tennyson. . 
He is an able speaker who can discover to each man the contra- 
diction by which he errs, and prove clearly to him that what he 
would, he doth not, and what he would not do, that he doth. 

Epictetus. 
What is it, Lucilius, that when ye intend to go one way, still drives 
us another ? What is it that thwarts our spirit ? Seneca. 

Araspes says to Cyrus : I have plainly two souls ; for a single soul 
cannot be a good one and a bad one at the same time ; nor can it at 
the same time affect both noble actions and vile ones. It cannot 
incline and be averse to the same things at the same time ; but it is 
plain there are two souls ; and when the good one prevails, it does 
noble things ; when the bad one prevails, it attempts vile things. 

Xenophon. 
Another precept is that which Aristotle mentioneth by the way, 
which is to bear ever towards the contrary extreme of that where- 
unto we are by nature inclined ; like unto the rowing against the 
stream, or making a wand straight by bending him contrary to his 
natural crookedness.* Bacon. 

As there is much beast and some devil in man, so is there some 
angel and some God in him. The beast and the devil may be con- 
quered, but in this life never destroyed. S. T. COLERIDGE. 



* The passage alluded to by Bacon occurs in the Ethics, ii. 9, 5, and is as 
follows: "It is necessary to consider to which of the vices we ourselves are 
most inclined ; for some of us are naturally disposed to one, and some to another ; 
and this we shall be able to discover from the pleasure and pain which arise in 
us. But it is necessary to drag ourselves away towards the opposite extreme 
for by bringing ourselves far from the side of error, we shall arrive at the mean 
as people do with crooked sticks to make them straight." 



Skakspearian Parallels. 177 

Two such opposed foes encampt them still 
In man as well as herbs — grace and rude will ; 
And, where the worser is predominant, 
Full soon the canker death eats up that plant. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act 11., Scene 3. 

The flesh being proud, desire doth fight with grace, 

For there it revels ; and when that decays, 

The guilty rebel for remission prays. 

Poems. 

There's something in me that reproves my fault ; 
But such a headstrong potent fault it is, 
That it but mocks reproof. 

Twelfth Night, Act in., Scene 4. 



xc. 

SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. 
And he said, Go^ and tell this people, Hear ye 
indeed, but understand not ; and see ye indeed, 
but perceive not. 1 Isa. vi. 9. 

The light shineth in darkness ; and the darkness 
comprehended it not. 2 (a) John i. 5. 

1 Acts xxviii. 25 — 27; Rom. xi. 8. 2 I Cor. ii. 14 ; John iii. 19. 

(a) Thou art near us, but we do not perceive, our passions blind 
us. Thou discoverest Thyself everywhere, but men do not see 
Thea. All nature speaks of Thee, and resounds with Thy most 
holy name ; but its voice is uttered to deafened ears, — they will not 
hear. Fenelon. 

12 



178 • Bible Truths , with 

What an infinite mock is this, that a man should 
have the best use of his eyes to see the way of 
blindness ! (b) Cymbeline, Act v., Scene 4. 



XCI. 

THE SOOTHING EFFECTS OF MUSIC. 

And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from 
God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and 
played with his hand ; so Saul was refreshed, and 
was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. 

1 Sam. xvi. 23. 



A solemn air, the best comforter 
To an unsettled fancy, (a) 

The Tempest, Act v., Scene 1. 



(l>) We see things without perceiving them. Goethe. 

They saw indeed, 
Yet saw not : they heard, but heard in vain. 

AESCHYLUS. 

(a) Although we lay altogether aside the consideration of ditty or 
matter, the very harmony of sounds being framed in due sort, and 
carried from the ear to the spiritual faculties of our souls, is by a 
native puissance and efficacy greatly available to bring to a perfect 
temper whatsoever is there troubled ; apt as well to quicken the 
spirits as to allay that which is too eager, sovereign against melan- 
choly and despair, forcible to draw forth tears of devotion, if the 
mind be such as can yield them, able both to move and to moderate 
all affections. Hooker. 

Music is the art of the prophets, the only art that can calm the 



Shakspearian Parallels. i 79 

Take thy lute, wench ; my soul grows sad with 

troubles ; 
Sing, and disperse them if thou canst. 

Henry VIII., Act 111., Scene 1. 

Since nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage, 
But music for a time doth change his nature, (b) 
Merchant of Venice, Act v., Scene 1. 

Preposterous ass ! that never read so far 
To know the cause why music was ordain'd ; 
Was it not to refresh the mind of man 
After his studies or his usual pain ? (c) 

Taming of the Shrew, Act in., Scene 1. 

agitations of the soul ; it is one of the most magnificent and delight- 
ful presents God has given us. Luther. 
Where griping grief the heart doth wound, 

And doleful dumps the mind oppress, 
Then music with her silver sound 

With speedy help doth lend redress ; 
Of troubled minds, in every sore, 
Sweet music hath a salve in store. * 

(Ascribed to) Richard Edwards. 
(6) Music has charms to soothe a savage breast. 

Congreve. 
(c) Music that gentlier on the spirit lies 

Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes ; 
Music that brings sweet sleep clown from the blissful skies. 

Tennyson. 
The Pythagoreans were accustomed, before seeking repose, to 



* This verse (from "A Song to the Lute in Musicke," In the "Paradise of 
Dainte Devises," 1596 ; vide "Percy's Reliques," 1st series, book ii. 5) is made 
the subject of a witty conversation among the musicians, in Romeo and Juliet, 
Act iv., Scene 5. 



1 80 Bible Truths, with 

Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends ! 
Unless some dull and favourable hand 
Will whisper music to my weary spirit. 

Henry IV., 2nd Part, Act iv., Scene 4. 

This music crept by me upon the waters ; 
Allaying both their fury and my passion 
With its sweet air. id) 

The Tempest, Act 1., Scene 2. 

For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews; 
Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones. 
Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act 111., Scene 2. 

Orpheus with his lute made trees, 
And the mountain-tops, that freeze, 
Bow themselves when he did sing ; 



soothe their minds with the music of the lyre, that, if they were 
troubled with unruly thoughts, they might become composed. 

Quintii.ian. 

(d) My heart ! they loose my heart, those simple words ; 
Its darkness passes, which nought else could touch ; 
Like some dank snake that force may not expel, 
Which glideth out to music sweet and low. 

Robert Browning. 

By music minds an equal temper know, 
Nor swell too high, nor sink too low. 
If in the breast tumultuous joys arise, 
Music her soft assuasive voice applies : 
Or when the soul is press'd with cares, 
Exalts her in enlivening airs. Pope. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 1 8 1 

To his music, plants and flowers 
Ever spring ; as sun and showers, 
There had been a lasting spring. 
Everything that heard him play, 
Even the billows of the sea, 
Hung their heads, and then lay by — 
In sweet music is such art ; 
Killing care, and grief of heart, 
Fall asleep, or, hearing, die. (c) 

King Henry VIII., Act in., Scene i. 



XCII. 

THE VALUE OF A GOOD NAME. 

A good name is rather to be chosen than great 
riches, and loving favour rather than silver and 
gold. 1 Prov. xxii. i. 



Music exalts each joy, allays each grief, 
Expels diseases, softens every pain ; 
Subdues the rage of poison and the plague ; 
And hence the wise of ancient days adored 
One power of physic, melody, and song. * 

Armstrong. 
1 Luke x. 20. 



* Bacon also takes notice of the peculiarity in ancient Greek mythology, of 
medicine and music both being attributed to one god. In "The Advancement of 
Learning" (Book ii. x. i), he says, "This variable composition of man's body hath 
made it an instrument easy to distemper ; and therefore the poets did well to 
conjoin music and medicine in Apollo" {vide Ovid, Metamorphoses, i. 521). 



1 82 Bible Truths, with 

Good name in man and Avoman 

Is the immediate jewel of.their souls. 

Who steals my purse, steals trash ; 'tis something, 

nothing ; 
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to 

thousands ; 
But he that filches from me my good name, 
Robs me of that which not enriches him, 
And makes me poor indeed. 

Othello, Act in., Scene i. 

The purest treasure mortal times afford 

Is spotless reputation ; that away, 

Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay. 

Xing Richard II., Act i., Scene i. 

Reputation, reputation, reputation ! Oh, I have 
lost my reputation ! I have lost the immortal part 
of myself; and what remains is bestial. 

Othello, Act n., Scene 3. 



XCIII. 

OLD AGE VENERABLE. 

Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and 
honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God. 1 

Lev. xix. 32. 

1 Gen. xxxi. 35 ; Eph. vi. I — 3. 



Skakspearian Parallels. 183 

The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found 
in the way of righteousness. 2 Prov. xvi. 31. 



Silver hairs 
Will purchase us a good opinion, 
And buy men's voices to commend our deeds. 
Julius C^sar, Act 11., Scene 1. 

Old folks have discretion, as they say, and know 
the world. 

.Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 11., Scene 2. 

Youth no less becomes 
The light and careless livery that it wears 
Than settled age his sables, and his weeds 
Importing health and graveness. (a) 

Hamlet, Act iv., Scene 7. 

2 Prov. xx. 29. 
(a) Rightly it is said 

That man descends into the vale of years, 
Yet have I thought that we might also speak, 
And not presumptuously, I trust, of age, 
As of a final eminence, though bare 
In aspect and forbidding, yet a point 
On which 'tis not impossible to set, 
In awful sovereignty — a place of power — 
A throne. Wordsworth. 

To every old man honour is to be rendered, according to his age, 
by rising and giving way to him, and in other similar ways. 

Aristotle. 



1 84 Bible Truths, with 

XCIV. 
GOD'S BLESSING ON PEACE-MAKERS. 

Blessed are the peace-makes, for they shall be 
called the children of God. 1 Matt. v. 9. 

It is an honour for a man to cease from strife. 2 (a) 

Prov. xx. 3. 



God's benison go with you ; and with those 
That would make good of bad, and friends of foes. 
Macbeth, Act 11., Scene 4. 

xcv. 

PRAYER SOMETIMES MERCIFULLY 
UNANSWERED. 

Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss. 

James iv. 3. 

What is age 
But the holy place of life, chapel of ease 
For all men's wearied miseries? And to rob 
That of her ornament, it is accursed, " 
As from a priest to steal a holy vestment. 

Massinger. 
x 2 Cor. xiii. n ; Phil. ii. 14, 15 ; Rom. xii. 18. 
2 Gen. xiii. 8 ; James iii. 17, 18. 

(a) A peace is of the nature of a conquest ; 

For then both parties nobly are subdued, 
And neither party loser. 

King Henry IV., 2nd Part, Act iv., Scene 2. 



S]iak:pcarian Parallels. 18; 

We, ignorant of ourselves, 
Beg often our own harms ; which the wise powers 
Deny us for our good ; so find we profit 
By losing of our prayers, (a) 

Antony and Cleopatra, Act n., Scene r. 



XCVI. 

PRAYER, ITS COMFORT IN AFFLICTION. 

Is any among you afflicted ? let him pray. 

Jas. v. 13. 

Call upon me in the day of trouble : I will 
deliver thee. 1 Ps.l. 15. 



I'm past all comfort here but prayers. 

King Henry VIII., Act iv., Scene 2. 

And my ending in despair, 
Unless I be relieved by prayer, 
Which pierces so that it assaults 
Mercy itself, and frees all faults. 

Epilogue to the Tempest. 

(a) Does it not seem to you that there is need of much forethought, 
in order that a person may not unconsciously pray for great evils for 
himself, while he thinks he is praying for good ? Plato. 

Jupiter, give us good things whether we pray for them or no ; 
but withhold evil things from us, even though we pray for them. 

Plato. 

1 Ps. xviii. 6, cxvi. 3 — 6. 



1 86 Bible Truths, with 

XCVII. 
PRAYER FOR PARDON. 

Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray 
God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be 
forgiven thee. Acts viii. 22, 



If you bethink yourself of any crime 
Unreconciled to Heaven and grace, 
Solicit for it straight. 

Othello, Act v., Scene 2. 



XCVIII. 

PRAYERS FOR THE WICKED • 
INEFFECTUAL. 

Now we know that God heareth not sinners. 1 

John ix. 31. 

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will 
not hear me. 2 Ps. lxvi. 18. 

For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though 
he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul ?, 

1 Prov. xv. 8, 29 ; James iv. 3. 

2 Isa. lix. 2 ; Matt, xxiii. 14. 



Sliakspcarian Parallels. 187 

Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon 
him ? B Job xxvii. 8, 9. 

And when ye spread forth your hands, I will 
hide mine eyes from you : yea, when ye make 
many prayers, I will not hear : your hands are full 
of blood. 4 Isa. i. 15. 



The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows : 
They are polluted springs, more abhorr'd 
Than spotted livers in the sacrifice, (a) 

Troilus and Cressida, Act v., Scene 3. 

Words without thoughts never to heaven go. 

Hamlet, Act in., Scene- 3. 

XCIX. 

QUARRELS SHOULD BE LEFT TO GOD. 

Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to 
me. Prov. xxiv. 29. 

3 Jer. xi. 11 ; Ezek. viii. 18 ; Zech. vii. 13. 

4 Prov. xxviii. 9 ; Jer. xiv. 12. 

(a) Whosoever prays to God while he is in a state or in the affec- 
tion to sin, his prayer is an abomination to God. If we be not good 
men, our prayers will do us no good, we shall be in the condition of 
them that never pray at all. The prayers of a wicked man are like 
breath of corrupted lungs ; God turns away from such unwholesome 
breathings. Jeremy Taylor. 

No petition of the perjured is acceptable to Jove. PlAutus. 



1 88 Bible Truths, with 

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather 
give place unto wrath : for it is written, Vengeance 
is mine : I will repay, saith the Lord. 1 

[Rom. xii. 19. 

His disciples James and John . . . said, Lord, 
wilt thou that we command fire to come down from 
heaven, and consume them even as Elias did ? But 

he turned and rebuked them, and said, Ye know 

•2 

Luke ix. 54, 55. 



not what manner of spirit ye are of. ! 



Say not thou, I will recompense evil ; but wait 

on the Lord, and he shall save thee. 3 

Prov. xx. 22. 



God will be avenged for the deed ; 

Take not the quarrel from His powerful arm, 

He needs no indirect nor lawless course 

To cut off those who have offended Him. (a) 

King Richard III., Act 1., Scene 4. 

1 Lev. xix. 18 ; Gen. xlix. 5 — 7 ; 1 Sam. xxiv. 17. 

2 1 Pet. ii. 21—23; Matt. v. 24. 

3 1 Tim. v. 15 ; Matt. v. 38, 39. 

(a) In highest heav'n 

Vengeance 'mid storms and tempests sits enshrined, » 
Vested in robes of lightning, and there sleeps, 
Unwaked but by the incensed Almighty's call. 
Oh, let not man presume to take unbid 
That dread vicegerency ! Mason. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 18 

Put we our quarrel to the will of Heaven, 
Who, when He sees the hours ripe on earth, 
Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads. 
King Richard II., Act i., Scene 2. 



THE TRIUMPH OF RELIGION IN 
AFFLICTION. 

My flesh and my heart faileth : but God is the 
strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. 1 

Ps. Ixxiii. 26. 

O Lord, my strength and my fortress, and my 
refuge in the day of affliction. 2 Jer. xvi. 19. 

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. 8 

Job xiii. 15. 

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art 
with me ; thy rod and thy staff they comfort 
me. 4 (a) Ps. xxiii. 4. 

1 Lam. iii. 24 ; Ps. cxix. 57. 

2 Ps. xlvi. 1 ; Isa. xxxl. 1, 2. 

8 Rom. viii. 38, 39 ; 2 Tim. iv. 6 — 8 ; Prov. xiv. 32. 
4 Isa. xliii. 2 ; 1 Cor. xv. 55. 

(a) Blessed for ever be that mother's child whose faith has made 
him the child of God. The earth may shake, the pillars of the 



190 Bible Truths, with 

Now God be praised ! that to believing souls 
Gives light to darkness, comfort in despair. 

King Henry VI., 2nd Part, Act 11., Scene 1. 



earth may tremble under us, the countenance of the world may be 
appalled, the sun may lose his light, the moon her beauty, the stars 
their glory ; but concerning the man that trusted in God,, if the fire 
have pronounced itself unable as much as to singe a hair of his head, 
if lions, beasts ravenous by nature, and keen witl\ hunger, being set 
to devour, have, as it were religiously, adored the very flesh of the 
faithful man — what is there in the world that shall change his heart, 
overthrow his faith, alter his affections towards God, or the affection 
of God to him ? Hooker. 

Philosophy is a proud, sullen detector,, of the poverty and misery 
of man. It may turn him from the world with a proud, sturdy con- 
tempt, but it cannot come forward and say, " Here are rest, grace, 
peace, strength, consolation." Cecil. 

When the pulse indeed beats high, and we are flushed with youth, 
and health, and vigour — when all goes on prosperously, and success 
seems almost to anticipate our wishes, — then we feel not the want of 
the consolations of religion ; but when fortune frowns, our friends 
forsake us — when sorrow, or sickness, or old age comes upon us, 
then it is that the superiority of the pleasures of religion is esta- 
blished over those of dissipation and vanity, which are ever apt to fly 
from us when we are most in want of their aid. Wilberforce. 

When ranting round in pleasure's ring, 

Religion may be blinded : 
Or if she gie a random sting, 

It may be little minded. 
But when in life we're tempest-driven, 

A conscience but a canker, 
A correspondence fix'd wi' Heaven 
.Is sure a noble anchor ! 

Burns. 

' (Religion) an everlasting lodestar, that beams the brighter in the 
heavens the darker here on earth grows the night around him. 

Carlyle. 



Shakspearian Parallels. igi 

CI. 

HYPOCRISY IN DEVOTION. 

This people draweth nigh unto me with their 
mouth, and honoureth me with their lips ; but their 
heart is far from me. 1 Matt. xv. 8. 

There is a generation that are pure in their own 
eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. 2 

Prov. XXX. 12. 

Two men went up into the temple to pray ; the 
one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The 
Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: God, 
I thank thee that I am not as other men are, ex- 
tortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this pub- 
lican. 3 LuKExviii. 10, n. 

Ye are they which justify yourselves before men ; 
but God knoweth your hearts. 4 Luke xvi. 15. 



'Tis too much proved, that with devotion's visage, 

And pious action, we do sugar o'er 

The devil himself. Hamlet, Act in., Scene 1. 

1 Isa. lviii. 1 — 3 ; Titus i. 16. 

2 Acts viii. 21 ; Rev. iii. 2 ; Prov. xxiii. 26. 

3 Isa. i. 15 ; Rev. iii. 17, 18 ; 2 Tim. 3, 5. 

4 1 Sam. xvi. 7 ; Jer. xvii. IO ; Matt, xxiii. 25. 



192 Bible Truths, with 

Oh, what may man within him hide, 
Though angel on the outward side, (a) 

Measure for Measure, Act in., Scene 2. 

God knows, of pure devotion. 

King Henry VI., 2nd Part, Act n., Scene 1. 



CII. 

PRACTICE BETTER THAN PRECEPT. 

Let us not love in word, neither in tongue ; but 
in deed and in truth. 1 John iii. 18. 

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, 
deceiving your own selves. 1 James i. 22. 



See that thou come 
Not to woo honour, but to wed it. (a) 

All's Well that Ends Well, Act 11., Scene 1. 

(a) An ill man is always ill ; but he is then worst of all when he 
pretends to be a saint. Bacon. 

Piety, like the other virtues, cannot have any connexion with vain 
show or dissimulation. Cicero. 

1 Matt. vii. 21 ; Luke xi. 28 ; John xiii. 17 ; Rom. ii. 13. 

(a) Virtue dwells not upon the tip of the tongue, but in the temple 
of a purified heart. Seneca. 

Religion consists not in knowledge, but in a holy life. 

Jeremy Taylor. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 193 

cm. 

HEROISM OF SELF-GOVERNMENT. 

He that is slow to anger is better than the 
mighty ; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that 
taketh a city. 1 Prov. xvi. 32. 



Brave conquerors ! for so you are 
That war against your own affections, 
And the huge army of the world's desires, (a) 
Love's Labour's Lost, Act 1., Scene 1. 

It is not enough that we idly gaze on the heavenly course ; we 
must personally enter it. Chalmers. 

Not alone to know, but to act according to thy knowledge, is thy 
destination, proclaims the voice of my inmost soul ; not for indolent 
contemplntion and study of thyself, nor for brooding over emotions 
of piety ; no, for action was existence given thee ; thy actions, and 
thy actions alone, determine thy worth. FlCHTE. 

Hast thou noticed well the distinction between truth and the ex- 
pression of truth, or art thou one of the foolish to whom thine own 
religious palaver is truth ? Words are not truth, though words and 
books may be the expression of truth. Truth can no more be printed 
than the atmosphere can. The word atmosphere can be printed, so 
can an analysis of its properties ; but in what way will the best 
analysis of the atmosphere profit a man if his lungs do not inhale the 
thing itself? Pulsford. 

1 Prov. xix. 1 1 ; I Sam. xxv. 32, 33 ; Rev. ii. 7. 

(a) He conquers twice who upon victory overcomes himself. 

Bacon. 

There never did, and never will, exist anything permanently noble 
and excellent in a character which was a stranger to the exercise of 
self-denial. Sir Walter Scott. 

13 



194 Bible Truths, with 

Now, lords, my choler being overblown 
With walking once about the quadrangle, 
I come to talk of commonwealth affairs. 

Henry VI:, 2nd Part, Act 1., Scene 3. 

Better conquest never canst thou make 
Than arm thy constant and thy nobler parts 
Against these giddy, loose suggestions. 

King John, Act 111., Scene 1 . 

What is the best government ? That which teaches us to govern 
ourselves. Goethe. 

Man, who man would be, 
Must rule the empire of himself ; in it 
Must be supreme, establishing his throne 
On vanquish'd will, quelling the anarchy 
Of hopes and fears, being himself alone. 

• Shelley. 
He who reigns within himself, and rules passions and fears, is 
more than a king. Milton. 

The more a man denies himself, the more he shall obtain from 
God. Horace. 

Real glory 
Springs from the silent conquest ot ourselves ; 
And without that the conqueror is nought 
But the first slave. Thomson. 

If inclination conquer a man, it is all over with him ; he is the 
slave of his inclination, not of himself. But if he conquers his 
inclination, he truly lives, and shall be famed as a conqueror of 
conquerors. Plautus. 

Reader, attend — whether thy soul 
Soars fancy's flight beyond the pole, 
Or darkling grubs this earthly hole 

In low pursuit, 
Know, prudent, cautious self-control 
Is wisdom's root. 

Burns. 



Skdkspearian Parallels. 195 

CIV. 
DUTY OF SELF-EXAMINATION. 

Examine yourselves. 2 Cor. xiii. 5. 

Let a man examine himself; for if we would 
judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 

1 Cor. xi. 28, 31. 

If a man think himself to be something, when 
he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every 
man prove his own work. 1 Gal. vi. 3, 4. 



Go to your bosom ; 
Knock there, (a) 
Measure for Measure, Act 11 ., Scene 2. 

1 Lam. iii. 40 ; Ps. Ixxvii. 6. 

[a) By all means use sometimes to be alone ; 

Salute thyself; see what thy soul doth wear. 

Dare to look in thy chest, for 'tis thy own ; 

And tumble up and down what thou find'st there. 

Herbert. 
Tis greatly wi.se to talk with our past hours, 
And ask them what report they bore to heaven, 
And how they might have borne more. welcome news. 

Young. 
Examine well yourself; make different scrutinies and observa- 
tions ; but more especially consider this, — whether you have made 
progress in philosophy or in life itself, in knowledge or in practice. 

Seneca. 



ig6 Bible Truths, with 

Oh that you would turn your eyes towards the 
napes of your necks, and make but a"n interior sur- 
vey of your good selves.* 

Coriolanus, Act II., Scene i. 



cv. 

SELF-PRAISE UNSEEMLY. 

Let another man praise thee,' and not thine own 
mouth : a stranger, and not thine own lips. 1 

Prov. xxvii. 2. 

For not he that commendeth himself is approved. 

2 Cor. x. 18. 

For men to search their own glory is not glory. 

Prov. xxv. 27. 



Peace, Trojan ; lay thy finger on thy Jips ! 
The' worthiness of praise distains his worth, 
If that the praised himself brings forth the praise. 
Troilus and Cressida, Act 1., Scene 3. 



* "With allusion," says Johnson, "to the. fable which tells us 
that every man has a bag hanging before him, in which he puts his 
neighbour's faults, — and another behind him, in which he stows his 
own." 

1 Gen. xi. 4 ; Dan. iv. 30 ; Phil. ii. 3 ; John v. 44 ; James v. 16. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 197 

He that is proud eats up himself. Pride is his 
own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle ; and 
whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the 
deed in the praise. 

Troilus and Cressida, Act il, Scene 3. 

There's not one wise man among twenty that will 
praise himself. 

Much Ado about Nothing, Act v., Scene 2. 

O sir, to such as boasting show their scars, 
A mock is due. 

Troilus and Cressida, Act iv., Scene 5. 

We wound our modesty, and make foul the 
clearings of our deservings, when of ourselves we 
publish them, (a) 

All's Well that Ends Well, Act 1., Scene 3. 



{a) To praise a man's self cannot be decent, except it be in rare 
cases. Bacon. 

All thanks must perish, and are lost 
'When authors their own actions boast. 

Martial. 

Leave thy friends to speak of these ; if possible, thy enemies to 
speak of these ; but at all events thy friends. Carlyle. 

Real merit of any kind wilt be discovered, and nothing can de- 
preciate it but a man's exhibiting it himself. 

Chesterfield. 



198 Bible Truths, with 

:> CVI. 

SIMPLICITY OF A CHARITABLE SPIRIT. 

(Charity) thinketh no evil. 1 Cor. xiii. 5: 



Whose nature is so far from doing harms, 
That he suspects none. 

King Lear, Act 1., Scene 2. 



CVII. 

RESISTANCE OF SIN. 

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 1 

James iv. 7. 



That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat 

Of habit's devil, is angel yet in this : 

That to the use of actions fair and good 

He likewise gives a frock, or livery, 

That aptly is put on ; refrain to-night, 

And that will lend a. kind of easiness 

To the next abstinence ; the next more easy, 

For use can almost change the stamp of nature, 

1 Eph. iv. 27 ; 1 Pet. v. 8, 9 ; Eph. vi. II. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 199 

And either curb the devil, or throw him out 
With wondrous potency. 

Hamlet, Act in., Scene 4. 



CVIII. 

A SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 

Behold the fowls of the air : for they sow not, 

neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; yet 

your heavenly Father feedeth them. 2 

Matt. vi. 26. 

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ? and 
one of them shall not fall on the ground without 
your Father. \ Matt. x. 29. 

Who provideth for the raven his food ? 3 

JOB xxxviii. 41. 



There is a special providence in the fall of a 
sparrow, (a) Hamlet, Act v., Scene 2.. 

2 Luke xii. 24. 3 p s . C xlvii. 8, 9 ; Ps. civ. 27. 

(a) No leaf moves, but God wills it. 

Catalan Proverb. 

Who ever knew Jove careless of his children ? 

Sophocles. 

The Deity is so great, and of such a nature, that He beholds all 
things at once, and hears all things, and is everywhere present, and 
takes care of all things unceasingly. Xenophon. 



200 Bible Truths, with 

He that doth the ravens feed, 
Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, 
Be comfort to my age ! 

As You Like It, Act il., Scene 3. ' 



CIX. 

DECEIT. 

The words of his mouth were smoother than 
butter, but war was in his heart ; his words were 
softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.* 

Ps. lv. 21. 

Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the 
workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their 
neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts. 

Ps. xxviii. 3. 

They bless with their mouth, but they curse in- 
wardly. Ps. lxii. 4. 

Some that smile have in their hearts, I fear, 
Millions of mischief. 

Julius Caesar, Act iy, Scene 1. 

Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes, 
And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice. 

King Richard III., Act 11., 'Scene 2. , 

4 Matt, xxvi, 49 ; Prov. xii. r8. 



Shakspcarian Parallels. 201 

My tables — meet it is, I set it down, 
That one may smile and smile, and be a villain. 
Hamlet, Act 1., Scene 5. 

Thou art like the harpy, 
Which, to betray, doth wear an angel's face, 
Seize with an eagle's talons. 

Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act iv., Scene 4. 

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose ; 

An evil soul, producing holy witness, 

Is like a villain with a-smiling cheek, 

A goodly apple rotten at the heart ; 

Oh, what a goodly outside falsehood hath ! 

Merchant of Venice, Act 1., Scene 3. 



CX. 

PENITENCE SHOULD SATISFY ALL. 

If thy brother trespass against thee, go and tell 
him his fault between thee and him alone ; (a) if 
he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 1 

Matt, xviii. 15. 

If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him ; 
and if he repent, forgive him. 2 LuKE/Xvii. 3. 

{a) It is not usual, Melitus, to accuse men before this court for un- 
designed offences, but to take them apart and admonish them. 

Plato. 
1 Luke. Nix, 17. 2 p s _ cx i;_ 5 . j ames Vi 2 o. 



202 Bible Truths, with 

Who by repentance is not satisfied, 

Is nor of heaven, nor earth ; for these are pleased 

By penitence the Eternal's wrath's appeased. 

Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act v., Scene 4. 

Not to relent is beastly, savage, devilish. 

King Henry VIII., Act 1., Scene 4. 



CXI. 

OATHS. 

Swear not at all. But let your communication 
be, Yea, yea ; nay, nay ; for whatsoever is more 
than these, cometh of evil. Matt. v. 34, 37. 

But above all things, my brethren, swear not ; 
but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay ; lest 
ye fall into condemnation. James v. 12. 



'Tis not the many oaths that make the truth : 
But the plain single vow that is vow'd true. 
All's Well that Ends Well, Act iv., Scene 

What other oath 
Than honesty to honesty engaged, 
That this shall be, or we will fall for it. 



Skakspearian Parallels. 20; 

Swear priests and cowards, and men catelous,* 

Old feeble carrions, and such suffering souls 

That welcome wrongs ; unto bad causes swear, 

Such creatures as men doubt ; but do not stain 

The even virtue of our enterprise, 

Now the insuppressive metal of our spirits, 

To think that or our cause or our performance 

Did need an oath. 

Julius Cesar, Act n., Scene 2. 

I'll take thy word for faith, not ask thine oath ; 
Who shuns not to break one will sure crack 
both, (a) 

Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act 1., Scene 2. 



CXII. 

SATANIC SUBTLETY. 

Satan himself is transformed into an angel of 
light. 1 2 Cor. xi. 14. 

* Deceitful. 

(a) It is a great sin to swear unto a sin ; 

But greater sin to keep a sinful oath. 

King Henry VI., ind Part, Adv., Scene 1. 
Never call God to witness for the sake of your own- advantage, 
even though you might swear truly. Socrates. 

Rash oaths, whether kept or broken, frequently produce guilt. 

Dr. Johnson. 
1 Job ii. 1. 



204 Bible Truths, with 

Now. the serpent was more subtle than any beast 
of the field which the Lord God had made. 2 

Gen. iii. i. . 

That old serpent called the Devil and Satan, 
which deceiveth the whole world. Rev. xii. 9. 



Devils soonest tempt, resembling! spirits of light. 
Love's Labour's Lost, Act iv., Scene 3. 

The devil hath power 

To assume a pleasing shape. 

Hamlet, Act 11., Scene 2. 

When devils will their blackest sins put on, 
They do suggest at first with heavenly shows. 
Timon of Athens, Act 11., Scene 3. 

O cunning enemy, that to catch a saint, 
With saints dost bate thy hook ! most dangerous 
Is that temptation, that doth goad us on 
To sin in loving virtue.* 

Measure for Measure, Act 11., Scene 2. 



2 2 Cor. xi. 3. 

* There is no vice so simple, but assumes 

Some mark of virtue on his outward parts. 

Merchant of Venice, Act in., Scene 2. 



Shakspeafian Parallels. 205 

Oftentimes, to win us to our. harm, 
The instruments of darkness tell us truths; 
Win us with honest titles, to betray us 
In deepest consequence, (a) 

Macbeth, Act 1., Scene 3. 

O what authority and show of truth 
Can cunning sin cover itself withal ! 

Much Ado about Nothing, Act iv., Scene 1. 

Let's write good angel on the devil's horn, 
'Tis not the devil's crest. 

Measure for Measure, Act n., Scene 4. 



C.XIII. 

THE DEVIL QUOTING SCRIPTURE. 
And [the devil] saith unto him, If thou be the 

(a) That hath been thy craft, 

By mixing somewhat true, to vent more lies. 

Milton. 
Satan, the father of lies, can declare the most important truths 
when it will serve his purpose ; and if he were permitted, he could 
do more mischief by ingeniously connecting the doctrines of the 
gospel with pernicious errors and immoral practice, than by every 
species of superstition, persecution, and infidelity. 

Rev. T. Scott. 
Errors, to be dangerous, must have a great deal of truth mingled 
with them. It is only from this alliance that they can ever obtain 
an extensive circulation ; from pure extravagance, and genuine, un- 
mingled falsehood, the world never has, and never can, sustain any 
mischief. Sydney Smith. 



206 " Bible Truths, with 

Son of God, cast thyself down ; for it is written, 
He shall give his angels charge concerning thee ; 
and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at 
any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 

Matt. iv. 6. 



The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose. 
An evil soul producing holy witness 
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, 
A goodly apple rotten at the core. 

Merchant of Venice, Act i., Scene 3. 

But then I sigh, and with a piece of Scripture 
Tell them, that God bids us do good for evil, 
And thus I clothe my naked villany 
With old odd ends, stolen forth of holy writ ; 
And seem a saint when most I play the devil. 
King Richard III., Act 1., Scene 3. 

In religion 
What damned error but some sober brow 
Will bless it and approve it with a text, 
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament, (a) 

Merchant of Venice, Act in., Scene 2. 



(a) E'en ministers they hae been kenn'd, 

In holy rapture, 
A rousing whid at times to vend, 

And nail't wi' Scripture. 

Burns. 



Shakspcarian Parallels. 207 

CXIV. 

IDOLATRY. 

They worship the work of their own hands, that 
which their own fingers have made. 1 Isa. ii. 8. 

For health, he calleth upon that which is weak ; 
for life, prayeth to that which is dead ; for aid, 
humbly beseecheth that which hath least means to 
help ; and for a good journey he asketh of that 
which cannot set a foot forward ; and for gaining 
and getting, and for good success of his hands, asketh 
ability to do of him that is most unable to do any- 
thing. Wisdom xiii. 18, 19. . 



'Tis mad idolatry 
To make the service greater than the god. 

Troilus and Cressida, Act 11., Scene 2. 



cxv. 

TEMPTATION TO BE AVOIDED. 

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into tempta- 
tion. 2 Matt. xxvi. 41. 

1 Hosea viii. 6. 2 I Pet. v. 8 ; Epb. vi. 18. 



208 Bible Truths, with 

Abstain from all appearance of evil. 3 

i Thess. v. 22. 



Jesus answered and said, Get thee behind me, 
Satan. Luke iv. 8. 



Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not 
in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, 
turn from it, and pass away. 4 Prov. iv. 14, 15. 



My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. 

Pro v. i. 10. 



Come out from' among them and be ye separate, 
saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. 

2 Cor. vi. 17. 



He is no man on whom perfections wait, 
That knowing sin within will touch the gate. 

' Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act 1., Scene 1. 

Lie in the lap of sin, and not mean harm ? . 
It is hypocrisy against the devil ; 

3 Rom. xiv. 21. 4 Ps. i. I, 2; Eph. v. II. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 209 

They that mean virtuously, and yet do so, 

The devil their virtue tempts, and the}' tempt 

heaven.* 

Othello, Act iv., Scene \. 

Satan, avoid ! I charge thee tempt me not. 

Comedy of Errors, Act iv., Scene 3. 

'Tis not for gravity to play at cherrypit with 
Satan, (a) Twelfth Night, Act in., Scene .4.. 

Do not give dalliance 

Too much the rein ; the strongest oaths are straw 

To the fire i' the blood. 

Tempest, Act iv., Scene 1. 



How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds 
Makes deeds ill done ! 

King John, Act iv., Scene 2. 

{a) He who has no mind to trade with the devil should be so wise 
a> to keep from his shop. South. 

He had need of a long spoon that eats with the devil. Men fancy 
they can cheat the arch-cheater, can advance in partnership with 
him up to a certain point, and then, whenever the connexion be 
comes too dangerous, break it off at their will ; being sure in this to 
be miserably deceived ; for, to quote another [proverb] in the same 
tone, He who has shifiped- the devil must carry him over the water. 

Trench. 
, Never yet 
Could sinner to his sin a, period set. 
When did the flush of molest blood inflame 
The cheek once harden'd to the sense of shame? 
Or when the offender, since the birth of time, 
Retire contented with a single crime? 

J UVENAI.. 

14 



2 1 o Bible Truths, with 

Sometimes we are devils to ourselves, 

When we will tempt the frailty of our powers, 

Presuming on their chainful potency, (b) 

Troilus and Cressida, Act iv., Scene 4. 



CXVI. 

THE DANGER .OF AN UNGOVERNED 
TONGUE. 

The wicked is snared by the trangression of his 
lips. 1 Prov. xii. 13. 

The lips of a fool shall swallow up himself. 2 

Eccles. x. 12. ■ 

Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue, keepeth 
his soul from troubles. 3 Prov. xxi. 23. 



(/') If Ave know our own weakness, and the strength of sin, we 
shall fear to expose ourselves to hazards, and be willing even to 
abridge ourselves of some things lawful when they prove dangerous ; 
or he that will do always all he lawfully may, shall often do some- 
thing that lawfully he may not. Archbishop Leighton. 

1 2 Sam. i. 2 — 16 ; Dan. vi. 7, S, 24. 

2 Luke xix. 22 ; Job xv. 6. 

3 Ecclus. xx. 6. 



Shakspearian Parallels. 2 1 1 

Many a man's tongue shakes out his master's un- 
doing, (a) 

All's Well that Ends Well, Act 11., Scene 4. 



(a) Give not thy tongue too great a liberty, lest it take thee pri- 
soner. A word unspoken is, like the sword in the scabbard, thine ; 
if vented, thy sword is in another's hand. Quarles. 

He that cannot refrain from much speaking is like a city without 
walls ; and less pains in the world a man cannot take than to hold 
his tongue ; therefore, if thou observest this r - ule in all assemblies, 
thou shalt seldom err. Restrain thy choler, hearken much and 
speak little ; for the tongue is the instrument of the greatest good 
and greatest evil that is done in the world. 

Sir Walter Raleigh. 

No man can live without breath, and yet some might live longer 
than they do if their breath were better employed. " Some men's 
throats have been cut by their own tongues," as the Arabian proverb 
intimates. "Life and death," saith Solomon, "are in the power 
of the tongue." Critics observe that a word and a plague grow upon 
the same root in the Hebrew tongue. 

It is certain that some men's breath hath been baneful poison, 
both to themselves and others. It was a word that cut off Adonijah 
(1 Kings ii. 23), and thousands since his day have died upon the 
point of the same weapon. It is therefore wholesome advice that 
is given us (Ps. xxxiv. 12), " What man is he that desireth life, 
and loveth many days, that he may see good ? Keep thy tongue 
from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile." Flavel. 



SHAKSPE ARE'S ALLUSIONS 



SCRIPTURE CHARACTERS, INCIDENTS, 

ETC. 



IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

He alludes to Herod, in Henry V., act iii., sc. 3 
in Antony and Cleopatra, act i., sc. 2 
twice in act iii., sc. 3, of the same play 
also in act iii., sc. 6, and act iv., sc. 6 ; and 
in Hamlet, act iii., sc. 2. 

To Pilate, in King Richard II., act iv., sc. 1 ; and 
King Richard III., act i., sc. 4. 

To Judas, in Love's Labour's Lost, act v., sc. 2 ; 
As You Like It, act iii., sc. 4 ; King Richard 
II., act iii., sc. 2, and act iv., sc. 1 ; and in 
King Henry VI. (3rd part), act v., sc. 7. 

To Barrabas, in the Merchant of Venice, act iv., sc. 1. 

To the Parable of the Rich Alan and Lazarus, in King 
Richard II., act iv., sc. 1 ; in King Henry IV. 
(1st part), act iv., sc. 2, and act iii., sc. 3, of 
the same play. 



214 Shakspeare' 's Allusions to 

To the Parable of the Prodigal Son, in the Merry 
Wives of Windsor, act iv., sc. 5 ; in the 
Comedy of Errors, act iv., sc. 3 ; in King- 
Henry IV. (1st part), act iv., sc. 2 ; in As 
You Like It, act i., sc. 1 ; and in the Two 
. Gentlemen of Verona, act iL, sc. 3. 

To the Legion of Devils, in Twelfth Night, act Hi., sc. 
4; and in the Merchant of Venice, act i., sc. 3. 

To Golgotha, in Macbeth, act i., sc. 2 ; and in King 
Richard II., act iv., sc. I. 



IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

He alludes to Adam, twice in Much Ado about 
Nothing, act ii., sc. I ; in Love's Labour's 
Lost, act iv., sc. 2 ; in As You Like It, act ii., 
sc. 1 ; in the Comedy of Errors, act iv., sc. 3 ; 
in King Henry IV. (1st part), act iii., sc. 3 ; 
in King Henry V, act i., sc. I ; in King 
Henry VI. (2nd part), act iv., sc. 2 ; and 
twice in Hamlet, act v., sc. I. 

To Adam and Eve, in Love's Labour's Lost, act v., 
sc. 2 ; and in King Richard IL, act iii., sc. 4, 

To Eve, in Two Gentlemen of Verona, act iii., sc. 1 ; 
Merry Wives of Windsor, act iv., sc. 2 ; 
Twelfth Night, act i., sc. 5 ; and in Love's 
Labour's Lost, act L, sc. 1. 

To Cain, in Love's Labour's Lost, act iv., sc. 2 ; King 



Scripture Characters, etc. 215 

John, act iii., sc. 4 ; King Richard II., act v.. 

sc. 6; King Henry IV. (2nd part), act i., sc. 

I ; King Henry VI. (ist part), act i., sc. 3 ; 

Hamlet, act v., sc. 1. 
To Abel, King Richard II., act i., sc. 1 ; King 

Henry VI. (ist part), act i., sc. 3. 
To Abraham, twice in the Merchant of Venice, act 

I, sc. 3. 
To Jacob, five times in the Merchant of Venice, act 

i., sc. 3 ; and once in act ii., sc. 5, of the same 

play. 
To Japhcth, King Henry IV. (2nd par"), in act ii., sc. 2. 
To Hagar, in the Merchant of Venice, act ii., sc. 5. 
To Laban, twice in the Merchant of Venice, act L, 

sc. 3. 
To Noah, in Twelfth Night, act iii., sc. 2. 
To the Flood, in the Comedy of Errors, act iii., sc. 2. 
To the beasts entering the ark, in As You Like It, 

# act v., sc. 4, 
To Pharaoh's soldiers, in Much Ado about Nothing, 

act iii., sc. 3. 
To Pharaoh's lean kiue* King Henry IV. (ist part), 

act ii., sc. 4. 



* Stevens says that the following lines from Hamlet, act 
contain an allusion to Pharaoh's dream, in Gen. xli. : — 
Loofc you now, what follows : 
Here is your husband ; like a mildew' 'd ear, 
Blasting his 'wholesome brother. 
But the allusion is a little obscure, and may be questioned. 



216 Shakspeare s Allusions to 

To the manner of Siserds death, in the Tempest, act 

iii., sc. 2. 
To Job, in King Henry IV. (2nd part), act i., sc. 2. 
To Job and his wife, in Merry Wives of Windsor, 

act v., sc. 5. 
To Daniel, in the Merchant of Venice, act iv., sc. 1. 
To Nebuchadnezzar, in All's Well that Ends Well, 

act iv., sc. 5. 
To Samson, in Love's Labour's Lost, act i., sc. 2. 
To Samson and Goliath, in King Henry VI. (1st 

part), act i., sc. 2. 
To Goliath, in Merry Wives of Windsor, act v., sc. I. 
To Deborah, (the prophetess,) in King Henry VI. 

(1st part), act i., sc. 2 
To Jezebel, in Twelfth Night, act ii., sc. 5. 
To Jephthah, in Hamlet, act ii., sc. 2 ; and in King 

Henry VI. (2nd part), act iii., sc. 2. 
To David, in King Henry IV. (2nd part), act iii., sc. 2. 
To AhitJwphel, in King Henry IV. (2nd part?) act i., 

sc. 2. 
To Solomon, in Love's Labour's Lost, act i., sc. 2., 

and act iv., sc. 3. 
To the Queen of Sheba, in King Henry VIII., act v., 

sc. 4.* 



* Shakspeare also alludes to several characters of the Apocryphal 
books which I have not included in the above. 



Serif hue Characters, etc. 217 

I have collected these Allusions in order to illus- 
trate more fully the frequency and facility with 
which Shakspeare was in the habit of referring to 
.such subjects, and to show with what extreme 
readiness they offered themselves to his mind and 
pen ; arguing, as they do, a familiarity with the 
Bible not very common in any case, and, in his 
particular arena, most singularly exceptional. Be- 
sides these, there are still a great number of pas- 
sages in his writings, although not quotable either 
as parallels or as direct allusions, that nevertheless, 
by some peculiarity of phrase or figure, distinctly 
reveal a biblical source, or suggest at once some 
biblical equivalent. Take, for example, the follow- 
ing from " All's Well that Ends Well," act ii., sc. 1, 
where Helena, the daughter of a famous physician, 
in trying to persuade the King of France to try the 
remedy she possesses for the cure of his disease, 
pleads the following arguments in defence of her 
youth and seeming inexperience : — 

" He that of greatest works is finisher, 
Oft does them by the weakest minister ; 
So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown, 
When judges have been babes. Great floods have 

flown 
From simple sources ; and great seas have dried 
When miracles have by the greatest been denied. 
Oft expectation fails, and most oft there 
Where most it promises ; and oft it hits 
Where hope is coldest, and despair most sits." 



218 Biblical Tone of 

What a comprehensive ramification of biblical 
allusion do these few words contain ! The first 
lines call to mind at once the text in 1st Corin- 
thians—" God hath chosen the foolish things of the 
world to confound the wise, arid the weak things of 
the world to confound the things that are mighty." 
Then in the next lines we are reminded of Matthew 
xxi. 1 6 — " Out of the mouths of babes," etc., and in 
the words, "When judges have been babes," of the 
child-prophet Samuel, and of the youthful Daniel 
judging the two elders. In the next sentence we 
have a hint of Moses' miracle in Horeb (Exodus 
xvii.), and in the passage, " Great seas have dried," 
etc., reference is made to the children of Israel 
passing through the Red Sea, when the power by 
which such miracles were wrought was denied by, 
"the greatest," evidently alluding in this cass to 
Pharaoh. 

But although such numerous allusions undeniably 
prove a most intimate and ready acquaintance with 
the Bible, it is not the literal evidence these afford, 
so much as the" general tone and morality of the 
works of Shakspeare that reveal the eminently 
scriptural tendency of his genius. The letter in 
many cases yields but a doubtful testimony. Shak- 
speare himself tells us that even "the devil can cite 
Scripture for his purpose;" and it is not so much 
in these verbal proofs, as in* the purely scriptural 



Shakppeai'J s Morality. 219 

character of his exalted philosophy that the most 
conclusive evidence of this distinguishing tendency 
is shown. Outside the Scriptures themselves there 
is no more eloquent exponent of divine truth than 
he ; and so comprehensive is the range of his in- 
telligence in this specialty of his many-sided power, 
that there is scarcely a valuable truth in the wide 
field of moral philosophy the Scriptures unfold, he 
has not wielded with the overwhelming power 
which genius only can, and illustrated with that 
colossal breadth of utterance which is his, and his 
alone. 

One of the greatest attractions in the biblical 
tone of his philosophy arises from its being so emi- 
nently characterized by those influences which flow 
more immediately from Christian sources, and from 
the fact of its never sinking to the dead level of 
that respectable pagan morality which constituted 
the greater part of the philosophy of his classical 
times, and, unfortunately, still continues to hold 
its place in a great deal of the morality, and more 
especially of the preached morality, of our own. 
In our own day, however, it is unquestionably ex- 
hibiting symptoms of a steady decline. The regular 
trade article in morality has not the ready market 
it once had, and is not listened to with anything 
like the same degree of patience. The dispensers 
of these "beggarly elements" of philosophy have 



2 20 Biblical Tone of 

almost had their day ; the age has outgrown them, 
and exhibits a daily increasing impatience of their 
distressing unfitness. Perhaps they will not be 
much longer wanted. In these times of miraculous 
mechanical contrivance, I live in daily expectation 
that some, moral Babbage will invent a machine, 
something of the nature of the calculating hand- 
organ of his name, which, with every revolution, 
shall evolve these respectable old truisms, with a 
corollary of appropriate reflections to each, so 
many in the minute, that will effectually supersede 
the flesh and blood apparatus now in use for that 
purpose. Such an invention would not only save 
the conscientious hearer that harassing irritation 
that arises between the duty of listening and the 
difficulty of listening to any profit, but it would 
save the speaker also the moral twinge that, in 
every honest man, must accompany the heartless 
reiteration of such barren twaddle. 

But to return to our subject : it is impossible to 
find any of this ready-made article in Shakspeare. 
You never detect his morality arranged in graceful 
folds about him for purposes of exhibition ; far less 
in any case in the shape of mere literary padding. 
As you read, you feel that it is in the blood and 
bone ; that his philosophy and he have indeed 
"grown together," and ""that their parting would 
be " a tortured body." 



Shakspsair s Morality. 221 

The peculiarly Christian spirit I have referred to 
as leavening his whole philosophy is everywhere 
observable in the fondness with which, through the 
medium of his noble characters, he produces in end- 
less change of argument and imagery, illustrations of 
that wisdom which is " first pure, then peaceable, 
gentle, and easy to be entreated." In his allusions 
to the Almighty, he delights in those attributes that 
more particularly represent Him in the character of 
His New Testament title of " The God of Peace," 
and between man and man would rather inculcate 
the humanizing doctrine of forgiveness, and recom- 
mend the "quality of mercy," than the rugged justice 
of the " eye for eye and tooth for tooth " morality 
of the first dispensation. With what tenderness 
and yet with what power, he advocates, in innumer- 
able passages, those virtues which more immediately 
grow from the seed sown in the Christian revelation ; 
of that gentle spirit that " seeketh not her own ; " 
" That hath a tear for pity, and a hand 
Open as day for melting charity." 

Of Forgiveness : the forgiveness that, carrying the 

fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer in its heart, can 

say, " I pardon him, as God shall pardon me." Of 

Kindness, " the cool and temperate wind of grace," 

nobler ever than revenge ; " Kindness, that to help 

another in adversity 

.-" Will strain a little, 
For 'tis a bond in men." 



22 2 Biblical Tone of 

Of Forbearance, that teaches " To revenge is no 
valour, but to bear ; " and that 

" The rarer action is 
In virtue than in vengeance." 

Of Charity, (" an attribute to God himself,") that 
" droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the 
place beneath." Of Peace, that " draws the sweet 
infant breath of gentle sleep ; " not the peace, how- 
ever, of inaction ; not the mauldin peace at any 
price of the half-hearted and timid, for he teaches 

also that 

'•' Rightly to be great 
Ts greatly to find quarrel in a straw, 
When honour's at the stake ; " 

but that self-restraining, self-denying, self-victorious 
peace ; that peace which 

" Is of the nature of a conquest ; 
For then both parties nobly are subdued, 
And neither party loser." 

Of Pity "that's a degree* to love." Of Compassion, 
that hates " the cruelty that loads a falling man," 
and tells us „ 

" 'Tis not enough to help the feeble up, 
But to support him after." 

And again, of the duty of charitable judging, a duty 

* Relation. 



Skakspeare's Morality. 223 

so emphatically prominent in New Testament 
morality, where can we find a more pointed and 
more powerfully beautiful rendering" of the text, 
" Judge not, lest ye be judged," than in the follow- 
ing passage from " Measure for Measure " — words 
that might arrest an unkind speech on the very lips, 
sending it back " as deep as to the lungs." 

" How would you be, 
If He, which is the top of judgment, should 
But judge you as you are ? Oh, think on that, 
And mercy then will breathe within your lips, 
Like man new made." 

On the other hand, there is scarcely a vice he has 
not helped to make more repugnant, and which he 
has not gibbeted in its turn. On this side of the 
question he utters no uncertain sound, nor ever 
incurs the woe the prophet threatens " unto them 
that call evil good and good evil." For although 
possessing above all men the power to "season with 
a gracious voice," he never uses it to " obscure the 
show of evil," but with a rhetoric that gives no 
quarter, and that in some cases would be inexcusably 
coarse, except upon the plea of his own proverb, 
that " diseases desperate grown " are only to be 
remedied by "desperate appliance," he attacks the 
enemy with the zeal of a reformer. With a matter 
of fact literality of power and purpose that disarms 
vice at all points of the delusive fascination that 



224 Biblical Tone of 

surrounds it, and strips all falsehood of its dangerous 
plausibility, — 

" The seeming truth which cunning times put on," 
To entrap the wisest : " — 

with a magic eloquence that dissolves "into thin 
air," every argument that would attempt, to 

" Hide the grossness with fair ornament," ■ 

and with an utter scorn and repudiation of the sel£- 
deceiving and exculpatory logic that would "skin 
the vice o' the top," he drags it to the light of day, 
and exhibits the monster in all its native hideous- 
ness, with " the primal eldest curse upon 't." One 
after another, in dismal procession, he leads the 
culprits out, to take their place in a pillory that will 
last as long as language, making them hateful in a 
single line, sometimes in a single epithet — " Lean- 
faced Envy;" "Back-wounding Calumny;" "Tiger- 
footed Rage;" "Vaulting Ambition" ("by that 
sin angels fell"); "Viperous Slander," "whose 
tongue out-venoms all the worms of Nile ; " Jealousy, 
" The Green-eyed Monster ; " Ingratitude, " The 
Marble-hearted Fiend," and that most heinous form 
of it, " Filial Ingratitude," he puts in its perfect 
place in these two lines : — 

" Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand, 
For liftino; food to 't?" ' 



Shakspeare s Morality. 225 

"Avarice," the "ambitious foul infirmity," that 
" grows with such pernicious root." The Deceit- 
fulness, 

" Which to betray doth wear an angel's face, 
Seize with an eagle's talons." 

The relentless Implacability that is " beastly, 
savage, devilish." The deep Duplicity that can 
" smile and smile and be a villain." The Hypo- 
crisy, that " with devotion's visage, and pious 
action," can " sugar o'er the devil himself." 

The eloquent power with which Shakspeare 
reproduces the leading truths of Scripture, tells 
with what terrible effect — " sharper than a two- 
edged sword " — they must have entered his own 
soul ; and not entering merely, but taking sternest 
possession, and " bringing into captivity every 
thought " to their obedience. Judging, indeed, 
from his works, never did the seed fall in more 
fertile ground, producing and reproducing flowers, 
fruit, and seed again " an hundredfold," and in 
a form so catching and so easy of re-distribution, 
that no doubt many a chance wind, acting uncon- 
sciously as God's missionary, has carried stray 
seeds of his genius far into the waste places of the 
earth, and permeating the crowded and almost 
inaccessible centres of those moral deserts called 
civilised, must have cheered and re-established in 

15 



226 Biblical Tone of 

hope many a poor neglected heart that, but for him, 
had scarcely heard of the good seed at all. 

Some of his most eloquent passages exhibit in 
a remarkable degree that invaluable power, which 
seems to belong exclusively to genius, and most 
eminently to his, of impressing us with those 
truths which, from their universally acknowledged 
importance, have at length sunk by their extreme 
triteness into the most vapid of commonplaces ; 
so utterly " flat, stale, and unprofitable," as almost 
to have ceased impressing us at all. Truths that 
are old enough to have come in with the light from 
chaos, and have been the common property of 
philosophers ever since ; truths that in modern 
times are handed about, and looked upon rather 
in the light of interesting moral fossils, than calcu- 
lated in any way to fill a useful office in life, and 
that, no doubt, if there is any truth in the theory 
of the extreme antiquity of the race, must have 
constituted the principal stock-in-trade of the pre- 
Adamite moralist, if that interesting variety of the 
genus homo was then developed. These fossili- 
ferous cake-dried axioms, that in common hands 
have almost ceased to retain any organic feature, 
with one touch from the genius of Shakspeare 
start into new life, shake off the trammels of pre- 
scribed form, and walk forth again in the propor- 
tions of nature. And, although in many cases he 



Shakspcarc s Morality, 227 

takes his text from the homeliest of every-day 
reflections, his morality never flattens into preach- 
ing, his advice is never obtrusive, his rebuke never 
degenerates into mere railing, his sentiment never 
sickens into sentimentality. The old gray-haired 
reflections that wag their heads and their tongues 
in stereotyped phrase over such subjects as the 
" swiftness of time," the " shortness of life," the 
"danger of delay," and such like, — subjects that 
have served the purposes of philosophers and 
moralists so long, that it is all but impossible to 
say anything new about them that is true, or true 
that is new ; these he clothes with such freshness 
and rejuvenescence, and launches with such em- 
phasis and originality, that they strike again as if 
for the first time. 

Truths of a more purely religious nature he 
touches with the simple reverence of one who feels 
that he is handling" sacred things, and he never 
loses an opportunity of bringing their higher influ- 
ence to bear on the ordinary conduct of life. 
Amongst those zealous biographers of Shakspeare 
who have laboured to show what employment or 
profession he was educated for, and what office in 
life he was originally intended to fill, (from evi- 
dence afforded by particular passages in his works, 
such as those quoted by Malone, and concurred in 
by Collier, as tending to prove he must have 



228 Biblical Tone of 

studied for the law, or such as many other of his 
biographers have brought forward in support of 
the various professions they severally contend for,) 
I have often wondered that no ingenious critic 
should ever have attempted to show that he must 
have been intended for the Church. 

Certainly the theory would not be any more 
absurd than some of those that have been already 
argued, and innumerable passages might be quoted 
from his works in support of it, that would not re- 
quire half the racking to make them fit, that some of 
them have been subjected to for similar purposes. 

It it indeed impossible to peruse his works with- 
out the reflection being repeatedly forced upon 
one, that if the world in him has gained its greatest 
dramatist, it has at least lost a divine — -perhaps 
the divinest. 

Jeremy Taylor has been called "The Shakspeare 
of the Church," and probably he of all others best 
deserves the compliment. Yet, putting them both 
together, and honestly looking " upon this picture 
and on that," it is impossible but to admit that the 
good bishop suffers considerably — as indeed, who 
. would not ? — by such a comparison. If Shak- 
speare's mind is at all reflected in his works ; if in 
them he has, in his own phrase, 

" Set us up a glass 
Where we can see the inmost part of him," 



Shaksptare s Morality. 2 2g 

he has certainly revealed a moral genius, whose 
unparalleled force, and almost inconceivable fecun- 
dity, has lifted him out of all comparison with any 
other writer, divine or otherwise, and in fact has 
exhibited " material " enough (" not to speak it 
profanely ") to furnish a whole Upper House of 
ordinary bishops. 

Of his other general gifts, had they been developed 
iii that direction, whose eloquence could have been 
more powerful than his, " to stir men's blood," and 
awaken the " capability and god-like reason " to 
clearer conceptions of its highest interests ? 

To whose more gifted tongue could with greater 
power have been committed the " oracles of God " ? 
With eloquence like his to such a " cause con- 
joined," 

" Preaching to stones 
Would make them capable." 

What voice more tenderly fitted than his — ■" in 
words that rob the Hybla bees, and leave them 
honeyless " — to teach the sweet "uses of adver- 
sity " ? to 

" Speak patience 
To those that wring under the load of sorrow ; " 

or to commend the efficacy and " twofold force " 
of prayer — 

" To be forestall'd ere we come to fall, 
Or pardon'd being down." 

Or, turning from the amenities of the gospel to 



230 Biblical To?ie of 

the frowning terrors of the law, who could have 

wielded the sword of the Spirit with more terrible 

effect than he ? Never did any writer bring nearer 

to the consciences of men those influences which 

reach us from " that undiscovered country," the 

world of spirits ; or urge with greater force those 

wholesome restraints that grow out of " a dread of 

something after death ; " whilst in the shuddering 

glimpse he gives us of the torments of a horrible 

hereafier, " thi secrets of the prison-house " are 

revealed to us, and rendered with such terrific 

effect as to turn all the fire and brimstone eloquence 

Of ordinary preaching into the merest pyrotechny 

and ineffectual cracker. Who, again, teaches us 

the dread lessons of all-eloquent death, — 

" Last scene of all, 
That ends life's strange eventful history," 

in more impressive language than he ? that " fell 
arrest without all bail" Avhich one day will lay hold 
upon each one, with its warrant in the name of 
God, from which there can be no appeal ? Though 
" we fat all creatures else," says he, " to fat us, we 
fat ourselves for maggots." Do what we can to 
ward off and postpone the evil day, it will come in 
spite of all the cunning and skill we can bring to 
bear against it, for he reminds us that, although 

" By medicine life may be prolong'd 3 yet death 
Will seize the doctor too." 



Skaksfieare' 's Morality. 251 

He takes every available opportunity of edging in 
the salutary remembrance of the " one event that 
happeneth to the righteous and to the wicked, to 
the clean and to the unclean ; " giving particular 
prominence to the fact that " there is no discharge 
in that war." 

It spares no ranks, and has no respect of per- 
sons. " Your fat king and your lean beggar is but 
variable service, two dishes but to one table." Let 
a man have all the advantages this world can be- 
stow, "on fortune's cap, the very button," " framed 
in the prodigality of nature," and let 

" his fame fold in 
This orb o' the earth ; " 

nevertheless, unto him, as unto all, the day will 
come when 

" Two paces of the vilest earth 
Is room enough." 

The Shakspearian text followed in these Paral- 
lels has for the most part been that of the Cambridge 
edition. Shakspeare has been so overgrown by 
annotation, that it is sometimes no easy task to 
decide upon the most likely reading. Fortunately, 
this abuse has nearly run its course. 

The original Shakspearian annotator, we Avould 
fondly hope, belongs to an almost extinct species. 
Not that he is uninteresting as a literary fossil, 



232 Biblical Tojie of 

but we confess that the appearance of a real 
live specimen fills us with apprehension. It 
is difficult to regard his extinction with other 
feelings than those of entire satisfaction ; and, 
indeed, when we call to mind the awful botchery 
he has been sometimes guilty of, we are almost 
tempted to go further, and to " curse serpigo 
and the rheum for ending him no sooner." The 
field of his labour has been long ago exhausted 
and over- wrought, and may now be allowed 
to lie fallow without any injury to the text of 
the poet, and no small comfort to that consider- 
able portion of the reading public who. feel in 
duty bound to give some attention, however tri- 
fling, to all Shakspearian subjects. In the Cam- 
bridge edition, the editors give us as many some- 
times as twenty different readings of the same 
line, and exhibit very fully the absurdities which 
an inordinate love of emendation and annotation 
leads to, although it appears to us that they do so 
at the cost of loading the best edition of the poet 
ever published, with what we humbly conceive 
to be a quantity of very unnecessary matter. Al- 
though in such a work it would have been im- 
possible but to have referred to a very great 
number of annotators, we should have thought it 
hardly necessary to quote — except with the inten- 
tion of provoking a laugh — the evident absurdities 



Shakspeari 's Morality. 233 

of that class of annotators from whom we may 
select Becket as the representative man — fellows 
who make the most ingenious emendations of 
what turns out to be merely a printer's error ; who 
give you endless interpretations of a passage no- 
body sees any difficulty in but themselves ; and 
who, in fact, to fit them with a cap of their poet's 
own making, are continually " drawing out the 
thread of their verbosity finer than the staple of 
their argument. We abhor such fantastical fan- 
tasms — such insociable and point-device com- 
panions — such rackers of orthography." 

•The edition, however, of Messrs. Addis and 
Wright, together with Mr. Booth's admirable repro- 
duction of the first folio of 1623 — which, for all 
critical purposes, is of even greater value — should 
be sufficient to constitute hereafter every Shak- 
spearian student his own annotator, so that at last 
we may comfort ourselves with the reflection 
that the annotators " occupation's gone." Not so 
easily disposed of, however, are those other Shak- 
spearian parasites, the biographers — those collectors 
of minute facts regarding his early life and employ- 
ments, the exact amount of his learning, all the 
traditional particulars about his friends, his wife 
and family, his goods and chattels, and, generally 
speaking, everything that by the remotest asso- 



234 Biblical Tone of 

his belongings. There seems to be no end to the 
writers who deal in this sort of ware. It might 
have been supposed that when the usual sources of 
such information had been fairly wrought up ; all 
the parish registers, corporation books, contempo- 
rary notices ; all the deeds, wills, and mortgages that 
could contribute the faintest ray of light upon the 
subject, and much that could contribute nothing ; 
when the poet's tree had supplied material for the 
last cane and the very last (?) snuff-box, — it might 
have been supposed that these writers might also 
have been starved out from sheer want of pabulum 
- — in this case certainly "a consummation most 
devoutly to be wished." But no, like Macbeth, 
" they bear a charmed life ; " or, like the line of 
Banquo, they seem as they would " stretch out to 
the crack of doom." Their material appears to grow 
as fast as it is cropt. Their capacity is fathomless 
as Juliet's love — " the more they give to us, the 
more they have." Every now and then, indeed, 
these biographers seem to fall asleep, but it takes 
but the slightest rumour of a Shakspearian dis- 
covery to show us that in this case, it is not the 
biographer that nods, but we that dream. Like the 
unseen clansmen of Roderick Dhu, on the merest 
whistle of such an announcement they rise up in hun- 
dreds, and the literary horizon may be said actually 
to bristle with the steel (pens) of Shaksperian re- 



Shakspearfs Morality. 235 

tainers. A bit of rat-eaten old parchment found in 
a garret is enough to start them — an old receipt, a 
tavern bill, or, above all, a Shakspearian autograph. 
It matters little whether or not such autograph can 
be proved genuine, or whether the sacred hierogly- 
phics be found now upon the fly-leaf of an Ovid's 
Metamorphoses, and now upon the Book of Common 
Prayer. It affords all the more ground for contro- 
versy, and a greater variety of those ingenious de- 
ductions quoted to substantiate some particular 
view of the poet's life, the biographer may have 
pledged himself to support. Upon such slender cue 
and motive as these so-called discoveries afford, the 
biographer will proceed to write an elaborate essay, 
or perhaps imagine he has sufficient ground upon 
which to base a new life of the poet or another 
edition of his works, for with these gentlemen 
as with the palaeontologists — you have only to give 
them a molar, and they will get you up at once the 
entire animal. 

But, these absurdities aside, it is a melancholy 
fact that after all the intelligent research of such men 
as Collier and Malone, of Dyce and De Quincey, of 
Charles Knight, Steevens, Halliwell, and Staunton, 
we are still compelled to admit the justice of Hal- 
lam's remark, when in his "Literature of Europe" 
he says, " Of William Shakspeare, whom we seem 
to know better than any human writer, it may be 



236 Biblical Tone of 

truly said that we scarcely know anything." Never 
was human life more hopelessly shrouded in mys- 
tery and doubt. Not one of the more important 
creatures of his imagination but leaves a more dis- 
tinctive impression than does the poet himself. 
We may say, indeed, that in his works we have his 
faith and his philosophy preserved, but we can say 
the same of Plato or of Moses. In all other actual 
and earthly respects his name is as remote as these. 
Homer is hardly less a myth than he. If we have 
not seven cities contending for his birthplace, we 
have seventy and seven writers haggling about his 
birthday ; and though all that pertains to his earthly 
pilgrimage is matter of comparatively recent date, 
this Nemesis of uncertainty not only follows him 
like his shadow from his cradle to his grave, but it 
haunts his memory like a ghost. The house he 
was born in is agreed upon rather by tradition than 
fact, for the poet's father was possessor of three 
houses in Stratford, and of another about a mile 
from the town on the Warwick road. None of us 
know how he lived— what he was — and only very 
indefinitely how he looked in the flesh. He eludes 
us at every turn. Like the vanishing ghost of 
Hamlet's father, one cries out "he is here," another 
" he is here," and a third . " he is gone." His por- 
traits have been subjects of endless controversy, 
and indeed if we try them by the ordinary rules 



SJiakspeart? s Morality. 237 

applied in matters of testimony, and bring them 
together that we may prove, by look'ng " up >n 
this picture and on that," how they corroborate each 
other, the result is singularly unfortunate, — so 
much so, that one does not know how to meet the 
'scepticism that would dismiss them all as merely 
"counterfeit presentments." The almost delicate 
beauty and refinement of the portrait by Cornelius 
Jansen, side by side with that awful effigy at Strat- 
ford, is really comparing " Hyperion to a satyr." 
We can no more convince ourselves of the likeness 
of that burly bust, than we can bring ourselves to 
believe, with Aubrey, that the poet was a butcher, 
and we have always considered it a matter of regret 
that Malone was allowed to whitewash it. It 
would have been much more in keeping with the 
art that produced it, had it been allowed to remain 
in all its original glories of scarlet coat, with cheeks 
to match, hazel eyes, and a beard of what Nick 
Bottom would call " your orange-tawny." The 
" tomb-maker" — as Wevil calls him — who produced 
it, was probably a country mason, who, in rainy 
days, carved a variety of such heads for stock — 
with the hideous little cherubs and inverted link all 
complete — and did not carve them well, for, as 
Hamlet would say, "he imitates humanity most 
abominably." We never see a representation in 
any shape of that awful caricature, with its mon- 



238 Biblical Tone of 

strous upper lip, and its open-mouthed and brain- 
less stare, but our "gorge rises at it." "It has no 
speculation in its eyes." " Hence, horrible shadow," 
we say ; rather let us cling to our own ideal Shak- 
speare, than have our dream disturbed by any such 
shocking reality as this. The man we see — " in 
our mind's eye, Horatio " — the handsome, courted, 
and accomplished friend of Southampton and Pem- 
broke — 

"Complete in feature and in mind, 
With all good grace to grace a gentleman. " 

The portrait by Martin Droeshout has been very 
severely, and we think very justly, condemned. 
The Stratford bust is not less deserving of censure. 
It is impossible to reconcile such productions as 
these with the placid wisdom and benevolence of 
" gentle Shakspeare," as one of the roughest of 
men has called him, and as he is reflected in the 
Chandos portrait ; or even with Aubrey's tradition 
that "he was handsome and well made." But the 
whole matter, like everything else pertaining to his 
life, is warped in tradition ; vague, unconfirmed, 
and problematical. The only point concerning his 
portraits, about which there seems to be almost no 
doubt — after all that has been said about them — 
is this, that he never sat for his portrait at all. 

His life, previous to his career as an actor, is 
quite as hopelessly involved in mystery, and has 



Shakspeare 's Morality. 239 

afforded ground for such a babel of conjecture, 
that, standing helpless amid the innumerable 
theories advanced by his biographers as to his 
early employments — schoolmaster, glover, poacher, 
woolstapler, lawyer's clerk, stable-boy, or butcher, — 
we can only hold up our hands in amazement, and 
exclaim with as good reason as Macduff, " Confusion 
now hath made his masterpiece." Then, again, of 
his life in London, except that he wro-te plays 
there, and sometimes ac'.ed, we know nothing. 
Whether or not his wife came to live with him there ? 
How often he visited Stratford ? To whom he 
addr ssed his " sugared sonnets ; " how we are to 
interpret them, and how far they are to be con- 
sidered autobiographical ? are questions that have 
been answered in twenty different ways, and have 
furnished matter for endless dispute. Of his pur- 
suits and manner of his life after his retirement to 
his native town, all is idle and unfounded specu- 
lation. In short, the whole of our positive know- 
ledge regarding him is unfortunately too much 
like Parolle's title to knowledge at all, "within very 
little of nothing." We may go on balancing 
probabilities about him to the end of time, but the 
fact remains unchanged, that, of anything in the 
shape of substantial evidence, of valid documentary 
testimony, we have almost nothing. 

From this unfortunate paucity of reliable fact 



240 Biblical Tone of 

regarding the actual and outer aspect of Shak- 
speare's life, it is with a sense of relief as well as 
satisfaction that we turn to the inexhaustable mine 
of his labours, that self-registering record, which 
after all is the most valuable part of his, as of 
every man's bicgraphy ; and it as a contribution 
towards this end that these parallels are submitted 
to the reader. 

The objection, however, may be made, that 
we have been dwelling altogether upon Shakspeare's 
virtues, without once mentioning his faults ; that 
we have been drawing attention to his beauties, but 
have said nothing about what may be considered 
objectionable in him. 

Yet, of course, it will be admitted that, in collect- 
ing parallels from his works wherewith to-illustrate 
the truths of Scripture, it was altogether unavoid-, 
able that the higher side of his philosophy should 
thereby be exhibited. As for his faults — for al- 
though all those who have made a study of his, 
works, and to whom his wisdom is "familiar as 
household words," will be ready to say, in the 
language of one of his most eminent contemporaries, 
" I honour his memory on this side idolatry as 
much as any man ; "* it would be saying he was 
more than human to say he had none — whilst per- 

* Ben Jpnson — Discoveries. 



Shakspearis Morality. 241 

haps the very humanness of his philosophy, so 
closely coinciding and dovetailing with the inner- 
most experiences of his fellow-men, is the only 
satisfactory explanation of his world-wide fame, 
and the main secret why "all men's hearts are his." 
Most of his shortcomings, however, will be found, 
on examination, to belong more to the age in which 
he lived than to the man himself; impurities in a 
great measure contracted from the contagious cir- 
cumstances through which it was his lot to pass, and 
which seem to have oppressed no man so much as 
they did Shakspeare himself. For, on comparing 
his works with those of his contemporaries in the 
same department of literature, it is impossible not 
to be struck with the higher standard of morality, 
and the immeasurably greater purity of his writings. 
In his sonnets (the only -trustworthy biography of 
his inner life) we find him deploring the associations 
which the nature of his public calling inevitably 
drew upon him, in the following lines : — 



" O, for my sake do you with fortune chide, 
The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds, 
That did not better for my life provide, 
Than public means, which-public manners breeds. 
Thence comes it that my name receives a brand, 
And almost thence my nature is subdued 
To what it works in like the dyer's hand : 
Pity me then, and wish I were renew'd ; 
Whilst, like a willing patient, I will drink 

16 



242 Biblical Tone of 

Potions of eyesell * 'gainst my strong infection, 
No bitterness that I will bitter think, 
Nor double penance, to correct correction, 
Pity me then, dear friend." f 

To such as do not deem this a sufficient answer, 

we have nothing further to urge, but' would only 

ask a question in return, The perfect man, who is 

he ? Where shall we find " the beauty of the world, 

the paragon of animals," without the " dram of 

base ; " the perfection 

" so absolute 
That some impurity doth not pollute," 

the precious metal " unmixed with baser matter " ? 

In the words of the wise king, " Who can say, I 
have made my heart clean ? I am pure from my 
sin?" or who, before Hamlet's searching query, can 
do otherwise than stand silent, " Use every man 
after his desert, and who 'shall 'scape whipping ? " 

It has been said that the best of men at best is 
but a man; so we must even accept Shakspeare on 
the like human condition ; and it is enough, perhaps, 
to leave the question here, and keeping our eyes 
still upon his virtues, which alone can profit us, to 
say that, except in the inspired volume itself, there 
is no higher, no purer philosophy; no more exalted 
conceptions of the Almighty, or of all that is good 

, Vinegar. f Sonnet CXI. 



Shakspeari 's Morality. 243 

and beautiful in His universe ; no keener, shrewder 
wisdom for men's use ; no deeper, surer counsels — 
with "the milk of human kindness" running audibly 
through them — for life's trials ; no wider, larger- 
hearted sympathy for the whole human race, than 
can be found in the writings of Shakspeare. 



FINIS. 



INDEX. 



Accountability to God, 42. 

Activity a necessary condition of true enjoyment, 116. 

Adversity, Compensations of, 1. 

Affliction, The blessed uses of, 6. 

Ambition, The fall of, 12. 

Associates, The influence of, 16. 

Avarice, The unprofitableness of, 155. 

Bacon, biblical tone of his writings, i. 
Brevity of life, 155. 

Charity, 31, 198. 

Christ the Redeemer, 3. 

Compensations of adversity, 1. 

Conscience, The courage of a good, and the cowardice of a bad, 

Conscience, The satisfaction of a good, 40. 

Contentment, The comforts of, 43. 

Corruption of human nature, 1 10. 

Curses, Danger of using, 165. 

Danger of prosperity, 99. 

Dangers of idleness, 141. 

Dangers of luxury, 14. 

Death common to all, 55. 

Death the end of all earthly troubles, 53. 

Death, Readiness for, 71. 

Deceit, 200. 

Early training, The importance of, 59. 

Envy of the wicked, 143. 

Error its own corrective, 61. 

Evil can only produce evil, 65. 

Evil prayers granted, 21. 

Evil recoiling on the evil-<v>c\ 26. 



246 Index. 



Faculties to be made good use of, 67. 

Faithfulness, 74. 

Falsehood, 53. 

Faults, small ones, sometimes extinguishing all merit, 140. 

Fear of God honourable, 93. 

Forgiveness, 77. 

Free-will, 79. 

Friend, the rebuke of a true one invaluable, 86. 

Friends forsaking poverty, 82. 

Friends, unfaithful ones, 31. 

Generosity to the poor, 89. 
Genius, The moral element in, viii. 
God's favours equally distributed, 105. 
God's guidance, 92. 

God's mercy to us should teach us mercy, 94. 
God's vengeance not to be eluded, 136. 
v Good for evil, 97. 
Good name, The value of a, 181. 
Government under a child, to be deplored, 30. 
Greatness, The troubles of, 43 
Guilt, The universality of, 103. 

Happiness of the righteous, 135. 

Honour, 88. 

Human nature, Corruption of, no. 

Humility, 113. 

Hypocrisy in devotion, 191. 

Idleness, Dangers of, 141. 

Idleness leading to poverty, 115. 

Idolatry, 207. 

Immortality, 147. 

Impurity of literature self-destructive, x., xi. 

Industry inculcated, 120. 

Industry the road to wealth and honour, 12 1. 

Influence of associates, 16. 

Instinct, 148. 

Intemperance, 150. 

Kindness, The law of, 149. 

Life compared to a passing cloud, 5. 

Life of the spirit, 73. 

Life, The shortness of, 155. 

Living for the praise of men censured, 75. 

Love makes a little, good cheer, 112. 

Love of money, 171. 

Luxury, Dangers of, 14. 



Index. 247 



Mammon, 157. 

Man. The foolishness of trusting in, i6r. 

Man, the grandeur of his nature, 163. 
Marriage tie. The sacredness of the, 165, 
Mercy an attribute of God, 166. 
Mirth, The beneficial effects of, 167. 
Moderation recommended, 170. 
Moral blindness, 130, 134. 
Moral conflict, 175. 
Murder cannot be concealed, 51. 
Music, The soothing effects of, 1 78. 

Name, Value of a good, 181. 

Oaths, 202. 

Occupation, no pleasure without it, 116. 

Old age venerable, 182. 

Over-carefulness of the body censured, 19. 

Overruling Providence, 90. 

Peace-makers, God's blessing on, 184. 
Penitence should satisfy all, 201. 
Practice better than precept, 192. 
Prayer for pardon, 186. 
Prayer, its comfort in affliction, 185. 
Prayer sometimes mercifully unanswered, \\ 
Prayers of the wicked ineffectual, 1 86. 
Precept at variance with practice, 127. 
Present moment only ours, 122. 
Prosperity, The clangers of, 99. 
Providence, An overruling, 90. 

Quarrels should be left to God, 187* 

Rash judging reproved, 22. 
Readiness for death, 71, 
Rebuke of a friend invaluable, 86. 
Religion, its triumph in affliction, 189. 
Resistance of sin, 198. 

Safety of a middle state, 108. 
Satanic subtlety, 203. 
Saving sacrifice, 73. 
Scripture, the devil quoting it, 205, 
Self-delusion of the wicked, 144 
Self-examination, The duty of, 195, 
Self-government, The heroism of, 193, 
Self-praise unseemly, 196. 
Shakspeare's faith, 4 (Note). 



248 Index. 



Shakspeare, his allusions to Scripture characters of the New Testa- 
ment, 213. 

Shakspeare, his allusions to Scripture characters of the Old Testa- 
ment, 214. 

Shakspeare, his annotators, 231, 232. 

Shakspeare, his biographers, 233. 

Shakspeare, his education, vi. 

Shakspeare, his portraits, 237. 

Shakspeare, the Christian character of his philosophy, 219. 

Shakspeare, the paucity of information concerning him, 236. 

Silence mistaken for wisdom, II. 

Sin breeding sin, 66. 

Special Providence, 199. 

Spiritual blindness, 177. 

Spiritual life, 73. 

Talents, The parable of the, 68. 

Temptation to be avoided, 207. 

Thankfulness, 70. 

Time the test of truth, 126. 

Tongue, The danger of an ungoverned, 210. 

Truth, the importance of the testimony of its enemies, xv., xvi. 

Universality of guilt, 103. 
Usury, 76. 

Wealth, The dangers of, 99. 
Widow's friend, 93. 
Wife, a bad one, 133. 
Wife, a good one, 132. 



Watson and Hazell, Printers, London and Aylesbury. 



W ORKS 

BY THE 

REV. F. J AC OX, B.A., 

(St. John's College, Cambridge,) formerly Curate 
of Wellingborough. 

In Crown 8vo, price 6s., cloth. 

BIBLE MUSIC: 

BEING VARIATIONS IN MANY KEYS ON MUSICAL THEMES 
FROM SCRIPTURE. 



CONTENTS. 
In the Beginning, and at the End. — Jubal's Invention. — Organs, 
— beyond the Meaning, and the Patience of Job. — As Vinegar 
upon Nitre. — Saul's Melody and David's Minstrelsy. — A Musical 
Monarch. — Temple Music. — Trumpet Tones. — Having Ears, but 
Hearing Not. — The Brute World and Music. — Minstrel and Seer. 
— Uncertainty of Sound. — Music and Morals. — Is any Merry? — 
Songs of Pilgrimage. — Songs of Exile. — Songs in the Night. 



" A book of rare quaint learning, the 
work of a man whom Elia himself — 
and we cannot think of higher praise 
of its kind — would have loved to ' sit 
under.' " — Spectator. 

" A writer who has culture and a 
wide acquaintance with all kinds of 
literature, and who will bring out of 
his stores wherewith to illustrate and 
enliven and support his own remarks 
about things in general, can hardly fail 
to make a pleasant book ; and there is 
certainly no failure in the case of ' Bible 
Music' Reference is made to seven- 
teen passages of Scripture, in which 
there is some allusion to something 
more or less nearly connected with 
music ; and then a cheerful meander- 
ing stream of gossip is poured forth, 
and permitted to flow in all conceivable 
directions, whilst its own original vol- 
ume is continually being increased by 
rivulets of anecdote and quotation, 
verse and prose." — Illustrated 
London News. 

'* The book is of a delightfully dis- 
cursive character, treating ..of music 
historically, philosophically, morally, 
scripturally, nationally, referring to 
different kinds of music, and to its 



effects on men and beasts ; abound- 
ing in illustrative anecdotes, and 
showing a wide acquaintance with 
literature."— North British Daily 
Mail. 

" Essays written with any degree of 
appreciation or ability on musical topics 
are so rare that we welcome with no 
slight satisfaction this discursive vol- 
ume. ' Bible Music ' is a choice col- 
lection of the thoughts and sayings of 
some of our greatest writers on musical 
subjects, and the author's task, fulfilled 
with no slight skill and ability, has 
been to link together these thoughts 
of many minds, and to furnish the 
golden thread which connects them so 
pleasantly, and gives continuity to the 
work. Even those who have no taste 
for the art can scarcely fail to derive 
pleasure and profit from this most en- 
tertaining volume." — Choir. 

" Mr. Jacox has collected all that 
has been written about music — anec- 
dotes and sentiments, prose and poetry, 
— and has arranged his materials under 
texts of Scripture. It is a delightful 
medley of material and suggestion for 
all lovers of music."— British Quar- 
terly Review. 



II. 

In Crown 8vo, price 6s., cloth. 
FIRST SERIES. 

SECULAR ANNOTATIONS ON 
SCRIPTURE TEXTS. 



CONTENTS. 



Fellowship in Achan's Fall — Silent Sympathy — The Tempter's 
"It is Written" — Royalty Reminded of the Poor— Wind, Earth- 
quake, Fire, and Still Small Voice — Haman Hanged on his own 
Gallows — To-day's Sufficing Evil, and To-morrow's Forecast Care 
— Medicamental Music — Free from Righteousness — The Service 
of Freedom — The Discreet Silence of Folly — Penal Prevision — 
Beatific Vision and Overshadowing Cloud — The Spreading Gourd, 
and the Speeding Worm- — Self-praise — Painted Face, Tired 
Head, and Exposed Skull — The Carcase of Jezebel on the Face 
of the Field — "Consider the Lilies" — A Histrionic Aspect of 
Life — Pharaoh's Alternations of Amendment and Relapse — Sleep 
and Death — Eliab and David in the Valley of Elah — The Prophet 
in his own Country — Desired Boon: Realized Bane — " And he 
Died " — An Ultra-protester — Fleeting Shadows — Haran Taken : 
Terah Left — The Mote and the Beam — Strangers and Pilgrims — 
The Falsity of the Familiar Friend — "Judge Not " — Part-know- 
ledge — Ruling the Waves — In Deadly Peril unawares — No Leisure 
— A Prophylactic Knife to the Throat — Hazael's Abhorrent Re- 
pudiation of his Future Self — The open Right Hand's Secret from 
the Left — To-morrow — The Divine Authorship of Order — Sweet 
Sleep and its Forfeiture — Once Denied, Thrice Denied — Linked 
Lies — A Time to Weep, and a Time to Laugh — Disallowed De- 
signs — Man Devising : God Directing — A Pursebearer's Protest 
against Purposeless Waste — Light at Evening-time — Wished-for 
Day — The more than Brotherhood of a Bosom Friend — Many 
Years to Enjoy Life : this Night to Die — Great Babylon Built : 
a Builder's Boast — Invocation and Inaction — Co-operant Units — ■ 
Subordinate, not Superfluous ; or, Depreciated Membership — 
The Wrath-dispelling Power of a Soft Answer — The Twice-told 
Tale of Years — Daybreak no Solace: Nightfall no Relief — Buyer's 
Bargain and Boast — Gray-haired unawares — Restrained Anger — 
Evanescence of the Early Dew — Ears to Hear — Not Alone in the 
Valley of Shadows. 



"By 'Secular Annotations' Mr. 
Jacox means illustrations from what is 
commonly called profane history and 
literature. ... A singularly inte- 
resting volume. Here is an admirable 
' Sunday Book,' the work of a man 
of wide reading, whose many books 
do not, as Robert Hall once said of 
a learned friend, prevent his train 
from moving." — Spectator. 



" This volume is the result of very 
extensive and discursive reading. 
Choice fragments of poetry, philoso- 
phy and history, the analogies of life 
and thought, with the high themes 
suggested by the sacred text, are 
heaped in almost prodigal affluence of 
illustration, upon the foundation of 
each text." — British Quarterly 
Review. 



III. 

Iii Crown Szv, price 6s., cloth. 
SECOND SERIES. 

SECULAR ANNOTATIONS ON 
SCRIPTURE TEXTS. 



CONTEXTS. 



A Treasury Estimate of Money's Worth — Beloved Physician — The 
Scorner's Fruitless Quest of Wisdom — Bereaved Indeed — Naaman 
in the House of Rimmon — Spots of the Leopard, and Wallowing 
of the Sow— Domineering Diotrophes ; or, Prating for Pre- 
eminence — Sorrow upon Sorrow — Sons of Eli, Sons of Samuel — ■ 

. Past Cure, Past Care — Hospitable with a Vengeance — Fall of the 
Tower in Siloam — Blank Annals of Well-being— Brayed in a 
Mortar — Inscrutably Deceitful, Desperately Wicked — An Inspired 
Artist — Bound for the Land of Darkness — The Parting Asunder 
of Paul and Barnabas — The Blasphemy of Despair— A Brother 
in Blood — New Edition, with Additions, of Baruch's Burnt Book 
— Belated Appreciation of Blessings Past — A Memorial Coat of 
Many Colours — Out and Outspoken — Mourning for a Mother — 
The Right Doing of the Supreme Judge — Job's Comforters — 
Sneering Pharisees — Slow to Wrath — Dementation belore Doom 
— The Sin of Youth in the Bones of Eld — Reproach in Excess — 
Smitten of God, Vexed of Men — Fools Suffered Gladly by Wise- 
acres — Smoother than Oil, Sharper than Steel — Baffled Word- 
catchers — Disclosed Blood— Presence and Correspondence — As 
Iron Sharpeneth Iron — Quietly Waiting — Deceiving and Deceived 
— Hard Saying, Easy Cure — Many that are First Last, and the 
Last First — Agur's Prayer for the Golden Mean — Expressive 
Silence — To every Hair a Number, to every Star a Name — A 
Right Royal Ending. 



" The volume will afford to the pub- 
lic teacher a curious fund of fresh and 
unwonted illustration of Scripture 
thought." — British Quarterly Re- 
view. 

" His design is to show how wonder- 
ously literature almost of every kind 
illustrates the teaching of Holy Writ. 
The work has gone beyond the range of 
our own literature or that of nations and 
times influenced by the Bible, and 
from every quarter he has collected 
phrases or passages that illustrate some 
Scripture text. Historians, poets, phi- 
losophers, political economists, novel- 
ists, all are pressed into the service. 
The author has shown great judgment 



and good taste, as well as unwearied 
industry." — Nonconformist. 

' ' In this, as well as in the former 
series of ' Secular Annotations,' he 
shows with great success how marvel- 
lously literature, in its manifold forms 
of history, fiction, poetry, and philoso- 
phy, yields illustrations ot the teaching 
of x Holy Scripture. Mr. Jacox has 
produced a work of great interest and 
usefulness." — Evangelical Maga- 
zine. 

"The book will afford much pleasant 
reading, were it only for its collection 
of apt literary e.xerpts from the best 
and choicest works in our language." 
— English Churchman. 



IV: 

In Crown $vo, price 'Js. 6d., cloth. 

CUES FROM ALL QUARTERS 



LITERARY MUSINGS OF A CLERICAL RECLUSE. 



CONTENTS. 
Once a Child — Never a Child — Always a Child — -About Indefinable 
Boundary Lines : a Vexed Question — Solitude in Crowds — Cities 
of Refuge : a Sequel to Solitude in Crowds — The Brute World 
a Mystery — Handy-dandy, Justice and Thief: A Cue from 
Shakspeare — About Square Men in Round Holes ; and Round 
in Square — About Toil as a Boon to Sorrow — About Great Griefs 
as a Medicine to Less : A Cue from Shakspeare — About Contra- 
dictory People: Readings of Character- - About finding one's 
Occupation gone : A Cue from Shakspeare — A Good Listener — 
Our Little Life-dream-fraught, Sleep-rounded : A Cue from 
Shakspeare — A Gouty Subject — About Peter Bell and Primroses : 
A Cue from Wordsworth — About Ejuxria and Gombroon : 
Glimpses of Day-dreamland — The Last Smile. 



The title of the book is remarkably 
appropriate. Out of a very extensive 
reading the author culls quotations 
without number, all of them suitable 
to the subject, and very neatly strung 
together. Nearly all that he does is 
to give one great writer the ' cue ' to 
another, and he modestly stands aside 
as prompter, while Shakspeare and 
Thackeray or any one of some hundred 
others, makes a little speech which some 
other caps, and so we pass from neat ex- 
tract to neat extract until we find that, 
with the slenderest possible padding 
of his own, the author has in each 
essay produced a mosaic of choice 
thoughts from choice thinkers." — Ex- 
aminer. . 

"A volume of exceedingly clever 
and original essays." Graphic. 

" We have nothing but praise to give 
to the very delightful volume before 
us. The author shows a wide reading, 
chiefly among modern" writers ; but 
with so much reference to the ancient 
as to give a welcome spice of scholar- 
ship to his writing, and his criticism 
on men and things is always kindly 
and wise. ' Cues from all Qnarters ' is 
eminently readable, and readable — no 
slight recommendation — whenever you 
choose to take it, wherever you open 
it, and for as long as you choose to 
eep it." — Spectator. 



"A really chatty, valuable, and de- 
lightful volume." — Brit. Quarterly. 

" ' Cues from all Quarters,' is cer- 
tainly a remarkable book. We cannot 
but marvel at the extraordinary powers 
of memory which it displays, and at 
the equally remarkable ability of weld- 
ing materials which to ordinary eyes 
possess little affinity into one consen- 
tient and harmonious whole." — Chris- 
tian Observer. 

"He has the seriousness, the mild 
humour, the reserve and suggestive- 
ness which are essential to success in 
this form of writing. He illuminates 
everything he has read by the light of 
his own observation, and often makes 
us think of Emerson's remark that he 
who can quote well gives a second 
meaning which may sometimes even 
be greater than the first."— Noncon- 
formist. 

" Not many modern works contain 
so much wisdom in so small a compass 
as ' Cues from all Quarters.' " — School 
Board Chronicle. 
• "One of those enjoyable books 
which presents us with a series of com- 
plete half hour's readings, and can be 
taken up and laid down at pleasure. 
The author is always entertaining, while 
his conclusions are generally sound 
and just." — Churchman's Shilling 
Magazine. 



LONDON : HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 

27, PATERNOSTER ROW. 



